State Adopts Sex Education Advisory Guide

The state Board of Education on Wednesday narrowly adopted California’s first specific guidelines for teaching students about homosexuality, AIDS, contraception, abortion, and other sex-related issues.

Opponents immediately vowed to stage protests in school districts throughout the state and threatened legal challenges, claiming that the guidelines virtually endorse homosexuality and abortion by failing to condemn them.

But Bill Honig, state superintendent of public instruction, said the advisory guidelines, which local school boards may adopt or ignore, will accomplish an important goal.

“We’ve got a disease problem. We’ve got a responsibility problem. We’ve got a pregnancy problem,” he said. Therefore, schools need to tell students, “you should be avoiding sexual activities because . . . you’re not equipped to take the responsibility.”

The board voted 6-4 to adopt guidelines for education about contraceptives that endorsed sexual abstinence as the best method of avoiding pregnancy and sexually-transmitted disease. The guidelines also recommend that homosexuality be discussed beginning in the 7th grade in a manner that does not encourage or condemn the behavior.

“Family values and monogamous, heterosexual relationships are affirmed throughout the program as well as the dignity of all individuals,” the guidelines say. “The implications of promiscuity for the spread of AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases should be clearly explained.”

The policy also suggests:

- Sex education should be part of an overall health program that starts in the elementary grades and promotes the “commonly held values” of society.

- Parents should be involved in planning sex education programs and in reviewing instructional material.

- Masturbation should be discussed in a way to dispel myths about it.

- Abortion should be discussed as a medical act that terminates a pregnancy but should not be presented as a method of birth control. Both pro-choice and anti-abortion arguments should be presented.