Board Approves Sex-Education Booklet : Thousand Oaks: The pamphlet, published by a conservative Christian group, was challenged by dozens of parents.

The Thousand Oaks school board has unanimously approved a conservative Christian publisher’s booklet challenged by dozens of parents as a biased and unconstitutional effort to push Christian values in public schools.

The action prompted immediate threats of a lawsuit by residents who contend that the schools’ use of the brochure, “How to Help Your Kids Say ‘No’ to Sex,” will violate the constitutional separation of church and state.

“We will sue,” said Glenda Lee-Barnard, director of the League of Women Voters’ local chapter.

Conejo Valley Unified School District board members shrugged off the threatened lawsuit, saying they had considered the possibility of a legal challenge during a closed session prior to the jammed, 3 1/2-hour public hearing on the pamphlet Thursday night.

Eyes welling with tears, parent Robin Cohen Westmiller said she supports teaching abstinence but opposes this pamphlet because of its Christian references.

“I am extremely upset that this school board wants to teach my Jewish kids Christian values,” Westmiller said as she left the meeting.

In an attempt to placate critics that made up about half of the 300 parents in attendance, the school board approved only the first 10 pages of the 19-page booklet for use by teachers, rejecting the pamphlet’s second half, which has drawn the most heated complaints.

The brochure’s last nine pages are an extensive list of other sex-education pamphlets and videos available from the publisher, Focus on the Family. The list includes titles such as “Love, Sex and God,” which offers teen-agers “biblical guidelines for social life.”

The Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Focus on the Family was founded by popular psychologist and Christian radio broadcaster James C. Dobson.

Thousand Oaks teachers will still have access to the reference list because school officials won’t cut the booklets in half before distribution, Assistant Supt. Richard Simpson said.

But, he said, the board’s decision sends teachers a clear message not to use any materials described in the second half of the booklet.

Even though the board officially rejected the reference list, attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said the pamphlet’s approval violates the constitutional separation of church and state. It also conflicts with California laws prohibiting religious teaching in public schools, ACLU counsel Carol A. Sobel said.

“It really makes no difference whether they say they’re approving it or not,” Sobel said. “They’re distributing it.”

School board members emphasized, however, that the brochure is only one of many sex-education books and videos available to teachers in the 18,000-student district.

“It’s just astounding to some of us that so much uproar could be made over one little pamphlet,” said parent Iris Carignan, a supporter of the booklet.

But opponents said they couldn’t understand why the school board would approve the Focus on the Family booklet when other brochures promoting abstinence are available.

“I don’t know why you have to pick a pamphlet that is inaccurate and biased and so tainted,” said Paige Moser, education coordinator for the Simi-Conejo chapter of the National Organization for Women.

In addition to their concerns over the booklet’s religious content, opponents said the main body of the brochure uses misleading statistics to promote sexual abstinence over education about practicing safe sex, such as using condoms to protect against disease and unwanted pregnancy.

They point out that the booklet, for example, quotes one study’s conclusion that the condom failure rate among young Latino women is as high as 44.5%. But a Planned Parenthood physician said the pamphlet neglected to explain that the women became pregnant because they didn’t use condoms regularly.

Members of the local chapter of the American Assn. of University Women protested that the booklet offends parents who don’t share its conservative Christian values.

“We all in this community recognize the growing diversity here, ethnic and cultural diversity,” association board member Beverly Khoshnevisan told the school board. “Along with the differing ethnic heritages are differing points of view and they all need to be respected.”

Resident Ekbal Kidwai strongly urged the school board to reject the booklet to protect the U.S. Constitution’s provision to keep government separate from religion. It is a constitutional protection envied by relatives in his native Pakistan, he said.

In a dramatic flourish before the board, Kidwai pulled out a white skullcap such as are traditionally worn by Sunni Muslims and announced, “I am the chairman of the Islamic Society of the Conejo Valley.”

The booklet’s supporters also invoked the U.S. Constitution in their arguments, declaring that rejecting the brochure on religious grounds would violate their First Amendment freedoms.

To demonstrate his point against censorship, Doug Davis pulled a crumpled dollar bill from his pocket and waved it before the audience and the panel of school officials.

“Here’s a pretty biased article here,” Davis said. “It says, ‘In God We Trust.’ ” He suggested sarcastically that perhaps the school board should forbid students from carrying money to school.

Supporters of the booklet said its message is sorely needed for the nation to return to what they called traditional American values.

“This America is not the America I knew when I was growing up,” said Davis, 36, of Thousand Oaks. “I would love to see things right again.”

Another Thousand Oaks resident had a strikingly different view of the school board debate. Maryann Rubino Downs, a parent who urged the school board to reject the pamphlet, said she was appalled at the lack of tolerance for those who hold different beliefs.

“I’m very upset at the way people are treating each other on this issue,” Downs said tearfully. “I thought this was a family-based community where people really cared about each other and I don’t see that in this room.”