School May Veto Lessons on Contraception : Sex: Some board members at the Escondido elementary district say birth-control information undermines emphasis on abstinence.

The Escondido Union Elementary School District board will vote today on whether to eliminate contraceptive education from the district curriculum.

Last spring, the district piloted a family planning program for seventh-graders at four of its schools that placed much stronger emphasis on abstinence and included lessons on contraception.

But three of the five school board members are saying they support removing the lessons on birth control altogether, despite a poll of parents and students that showed overwhelming support for the full curriculum and the district staff’s recommendation that a birth control component be included in the curriculum.

“If you have a program based on abstinence, it is undermined if you then turn around and teach about contraceptives,” said John Laing, president of the board, which sets policy for the 15,000-student district.

“If you are going to tell the child that it is in the best interest for many reasons to abstain from sex, you should not then teach contraceptives because it implies another message,” Laing said.

Board member Kathy Marler said seventh grade is too early to introduce contraceptives to children.

“At this age, we need to stress abstinence so that they choose abstinence,” she said.

Board members supporting contraceptive education argue that the school district already has a policy whereby parents who object can have their children excluded from any part of the work.

“If we eliminate (lessons on birth control) in total, we are then honoring just one viewpoint, and we will take away the option to accommodate all viewpoints,” said board member Linda Woods.

“I think we have our heads in the sand if we do not give our students honest, accurate information to make their decisions in life,” said Dawna Nerhus, another board member.

A poll of the students involved in the Escondido pilot project showed that 86% approved of the program that included birth control lessons. Also, 93% of parents responding to the poll approved of the full curriculum, and 93% said it was appropriate for seventh-graders.

The curriculum at issue is called “Me, My World, My Future,” which is actually a hybrid version of a program developed 10 years ago in Seattle called Teen Aid.

The district’s staff earlier this month recommended approval of the full curriculum, including lessons on the use of contraceptives. Two committees, one composed mainly of school staff and the other mostly of parents and community representatives, endorsed the staff recommendation.

Three members of the committee of mostly parents and community representatives objected to the inclusion of contraceptive lessons, while 15 members of that committee approved, said Susan McClain, the district’s coordinator of student support programs.

Board member Pamela Wangerien, who in the early 1980s had voted for the old sex education curriculum called Life Decisions, said the board at the time did not clearly understand that it included lessons about birth control.

Two years ago, the district decided to revise its sex education program because it was outdated. The pilot program introduced in spring was the product of the revision.

“I believe that this particular curriculum far surpasses what we had in place. My feeling has always been that to preach a message of abstinence and to include lessons on birth control would be sending a mixed message,” Wangerien said.

If the elementary school district were to eliminate lessons on birth control, students in the area would have to wait until the 10th grade, about age 16, before receiving classroom exposure to contraceptives. They would then be in the Escondido Union High School District.

“It is very important in a health education context class to have students understand the difference between factual information and myth,” said Marsha Mooradian, the high school district’s director of curriculum instruction and assessment.

“If they do not have a formal course of education until the 10th grade, they will function on street knowledge and misinformation until such time that a curriculum is taught to them formally that can clarify those misconceptions,” Mooradian said.

Schools are mandated by the state to teach abstinence from sex as the only completely effective means of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, and that all other methods of contraception carry a risk of failure.

To some degree, however, that means schools must teach about other forms of contraception, said Justin Cunningham of the San Diego County Office of Education.

Students “have to be provided with statistics and the latest medical information on the success and failure rates of condoms and other forms of contraceptives,” Cunningham said.

Districts in the area are split on when to teach children about birth control, with Vista Unified including contraceptive lessons in the seventh grade, while Oceanside Unified waits until the 10th grade.

San Marcos Unified excludes lessons on contraceptives in the seventh grade but does provide optional, before-school lessons for seventh-graders who choose to take them, said Joe DeDiminicantanio, assistant superintendent for instructional services.

Birth control instruction at San Marcos Unified is provided at the ninth-grade level, DeDiminicantanio said.

The Teen Aid program, on which the Escondido Union Elementary School District curriculum is based, is considered by some to be a narrow form of sex education.

“It doesn’t seem to acknowledge different viewpoints,” said Lenore Lowe of Planned Parenthood.

Lowe said that Teen Aid contends that life begins at conception, and that, although the program does not make specific mention of the morality of abortion, to start with that assumption would lead to the disputed conclusion that abortion is wrong.

“It is not a curriculum that portrays gender and racial diversity. It doesn’t talk about families that aren’t a mom and dad and two kids. It doesn’t acknowledge the fact there is such a thing as homosexuals,” Lowe said.