Parents Outraged by Anti-Abortion Video at School : Education: Eighth-grade teacher allows student to make presentation showing aborted fetus without getting parental approval.

Parents from Standley Junior High School in University City confronted an eighth-grade teacher at a special meeting Thursday because she permitted a student to make a graphic anti-abortion presentation that included a video showing a fetus being aborted and what appeared to be aborted fetuses.

“I’m pissed,” said a fuming Sylvia Eisenson after viewing the video during the meeting for parents and teachers only.

“There is no way any parent after seeing this movie would allow their children to see this clip,” said Eisenson, whose 13-year-old daughter was shown the video during class.

Sally Owen, an eighth-grade English teacher, allowed one of her students to give an oral presentation about the anti-abortion view March 31 as part of an assignment on controversial issues, according to parents and school officials.

Several parents expressed anger that they were not given the requisite review of sexually related and controversial materials, and many feel their children have been put through tremendous emotional strain.

“I’m not an activist, but I am just outraged by what happened to my child. I don’t think you send your kids to school expecting that harm will come to them,” said Donna Ferguson, who has a daughter in one of Owen’s classes.

Parents, however did not seem to direct their anger toward Owen, 35-year veteran in San Diego Unified. “It was a graphic film, and it should not have been shown in class. It was an error in judgment, and she came clean,” said Norma Smith, who is president of the school’s parent-teacher student association.

Owen appeared to have violated at least two of the district’s policies regarding the handling of controversial materials and the instruction of human reproduction that require written parental notification of the curriculum and a preview by parents of materials related to human reproductive organs and their functions.

Students had mixed reactions to the video.

“I was shocked that they showed that in an English class,” said 13-year-old Jessica D’Abreo during an interview at the meeting.

Dayshawnna Littleton, also a student in Owen’s class, said that viewing the film was no more graphic than what is seen in the local theater.

“It was not that bad. If you’ve seen “Total Recall,” it was no more graphic than that,” Littleton said.

The student giving the anti-abortion presentation had asked Owen’s permission to show two videotapes as part of the lesson, which she granted after previewing them, Owen said.

But, when the student gave her presentation, the video included pictures of a dismembered fetus, Owen said. Owen said she is unsure whether she inadvertently failed to see the entire tape or whether the girl brought in different material on the day of class.

The video, “Hard Truth,” was hosted by Gregg Cunningham, a former Pennsylvania legislator who wrote that state’s bill that ended state-funded abortions in 1980. The video begins with the statement, “Abortion is an act of violence which kills a baby” and compares abortion to the Nazi Holocaust.

Following a brief introduction, the video proceeds into a six-minute montage of film clips and still pictures showing abortions and aborted fetuses with music playing in the background and a singer accompanying with lyrics that call doctors who perform abortions, “butchers of mankind.”

“The day of the presentation, the girl and her mother came to class. There was a communication problem, and I did not preview the very graphic abortion tape,” Owen said.

Owen continued to have the student give her 55-minute presentation to all of Owen’s classes that day.

“Several groups of students in the next classes had heard about it and asked to see it,” Owen said. “I made an error in judgment and said, ‘Well, if you can do it in a mature way, OK.’ ”

Owen said she intended to have other students give an opposing viewpoint the following week.

Owen said in retrospect that she would not have allowed the tape to be shown, “and I certainly would not have continued it all day, and I would have made sure that parents were notified ahead of time.”

Parents complained to the school and the school district that they were not given the chance to review the material, and that it was not appropriate for 13-year-old students.

“They don’t have the right to push that information in public schools without parents’ permission. It’s very frightening,” said Anita Simons, whose daughter is in one of Owen’s classes.

School administrators also criticized Owen’s decision to allow the video to be shown.

“I think it was an error in judgment,” said Merry Stonebreaker, the school’s vice principal.

Franklin Till, assistant superintendent of the district, said the district will be “working with the school . . . to determine if our policies and procedures were followed appropriately in this case.”

Till, after seeing the seven-minute video said, “It should not have been shown in the classroom . . . it was inappropriate. We acknowledge that there were some errors in judgment that cannot be undone. It will not be the intent of our district to present a countering point of view. We do not take a position on abortion.”

It is unclear if any disciplinary measures will be taken.

National Right to Life, a national anti-abortion organization, said it is not inappropriate to show videotapes of dismembered fetuses to eighth-grade classes.

“Our junior high school students are subjected to a lot of ugly things in this world, and in our classrooms they are exposed to pretty awful things that have to do with drugs and car accidents, so I can’t say that I think it’s inappropriate to be shown one of the victims of an abortion, which is the child who is killed,” said Jan Carroll, associate western director for the group.

But Lenore Lowe, director of communications for the local chapter of Planned Parenthood, said the outcry shows that parents need to be more involved in the health and sexuality curriculum of young teen-agers, noting that students frequently talk to teachers about birth control without parental permission.

“Parents should have been advised that this was going to take place, and they should have had the opportunity to comment on the program beforehand,” Lowe said.