Parental Concern About Classes on Sex Education

Contrary to much of what has recently been reported (or should I say “distorted”) in the newspapers, there are a lot of parents and citizens within the community who are very concerned about the material being presented in the sex education classes within the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, and have every right to be concerned.

In fact, at the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board meeting Feb. 28, 19 of the 31 people who spoke with regard to district family life and psychology curriculum were in favor of Ray Woolsey’s proposals: that the school board adopt a defined sex education curriculum to be used throughout the district; that a parent-teacher committee be elected by the school board; that the elected parents of that committee be involved in the process of defining such sex education curriculum, and that the sex education curriculum be reviewed every 3 years.

In accordance with both state and federal law, parents do have inherent rights concerning what is taught to their children.

There are many parents within the district who are very upset about what is being taught to their children, including openly discussing deviant sexual behavior (such as: bestiality, sex with children, sex with the dead, masochism, sex with foreign objects and transsexualism) within the high school classroom.

Because of their legitimate concern for the health and welfare of their children, they want to have a voice in what is being taught to their children. They want traditional values, including abstinence, to be taught as a part of the sex education curriculum within the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

I ask you, is this such an unreasonable request? After all, they are the parents.

JAN LA RUE

Costa Mesa