Schools OK Lessons in Contraception

After five hours of testimony and debate, the Escondido Union Elementary School board voted early Friday morning to keep lessons on contraception in its sex education curriculum.

A narrow majority of the board had previously gone on record as wanting to eliminate birth-control instruction from its policy, saying that seventh grade was too early to teach birth control, and it would send mixed messages to have an abstinence-based sex education program and then have instruction about contraceptives.

“I was on the record as saying I wasn’t sure kids should have information on contraceptives in the seventh grade,” said Pamela Wangerien, who was the swing vote in a 3-2 majority to keep birth control instruction part of district policy.

Wangerien said there was a difference between district policies and specific curricula, saying that the policy approved Friday would keep the door open for a case-by-case look at programs that might be proposed.

“It doesn’t leave out the possibility that maybe the eighth grade is appropriate. I would like to look at the curriculum as it comes in,” Wangerien said.

“I also had feedback from students that the high school is not doing it in the ninth grade, and that really is what swung my vote,” Wangerien said. The elementary school district has no control over curriculum decisions in the high school district.

Board president John Laing, who dissented along with Kathy Marler, said that teaching about birth control should be the domain of the parents.

“I am concerned about preempting parental responsibility here,” Laing said.

But board members supporting a family-life curriculum that included contraception argued that the school district already has a policy allowing parents to pull their children from courses they consider objectionable.

“This ‘safety valve’ allows us to not only recognize and respect, but accommodate all points of view related to the topic,” said board member Linda Woods. “If we remove (birth control instruction), it will most certainly recognize, respect and accommodate only one point of view.”

Marler thought that parents were not being given the chance to direct the education of their children.

“There are parents who feel absolutely pressured to keep their children in a sex education class because otherwise (the children) are harassed and teased” by other students, Marler said.

More than 20 parents, teachers and students testified in favor of keeping birth control instruction part of the school district’s policy, as it has been since 1983. Only two people spoke in favor of eliminating the instruction.

“This is vitally important to our students, and for some, it’s more important than reading, writing and math,” said Rita Hopper, a teacher at Hidden Valley Middle School.

“Contraception is a basic health issue designed to save lives. . . . Some parents don’t do their job very well, and schools have been saddled with some of that responsibility,” Hopper told the board.

The district last spring piloted a family life program that placed much stronger emphasis on abstinence and included contraceptive lessons. A majority of two advisory committees made up of school staff, parents and community representatives had supported the program.

A poll of parents and students involved in the Escondido pilot project showed overwhelming support for the program that included birth control lessons.

The curriculum at issue is called “Me, My World, My Future,” which was developed 10 years ago in Seattle called Teen Aid and amended in Escondido to include material on contraceptives.

The district’s staff earlier this month had recommended that the full curriculum be adopted, including teaching the use of birth control. The advisory committees endorsed the program, and only three committee members objected.