Schools Expand Sex Education to Primary Grades
The Glendale Board of Education voted Tuesday to expand the sex education curriculum in Glendale secondary schools and to initiate sex education discussions in elementary schools for the first time.
The unanimous vote was made without comment and followed the acceptance of last month’s report of a committee of parents, teachers and community representatives. The report said sexuality including AIDS and masturbation should be discussed in district elementaries.
A committee of teachers will meet beginning this month to design a limited sexual education curriculum for fifth- and sixth-graders and more comprehensive programs for junior high school and high school students.
The expanded courses will advise students to abstain from sex before marriage but also teaches them about birth control and the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases, school officials say.
The district will institute programs to familiarize teachers with the courses and will hire health specialists to help conduct sex education classes.
Sex education is now taught at Glendale schools only at the 10th-grade level. Junior high school science classes address human growth and development and reproduction, and an after-school program sponsored by the Parent Teachers Assn. is offered at some schools to fifth- and sixth-graders.
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