Ex-Senate Candidate Leads Opposition to Birth Control Teaching : Simi Valley: Matt Noah, who ran under the Christian Pro-Life Party in Colorado, campaigns for abstinence- only instruction.

A former U.S. Senate candidate from Colorado who ran under the Christian Pro-Life Party is leading a group of Simi Valley parents in a fight against the inclusion of birth control information in sex education classes.

Matt Noah, who gained national attention last year when he ran graphic antiabortion television commercials during his Senate bid, said Monday he will lead the campaign for abstinence-only sex education as a spokesman for the newly formed Citizens for Truth in Education.

“We all came in with a concern and a belief that abstinence is the best way to go,” Noah said. The group has been meeting since August “to do research and educate ourselves,” he said.

Citizens for Truth in Education has about 25 members. They are among dozens of parents who have attended recent board meetings to support a sex education curriculum that would stress abstinence only.

Debate over the issue is expected to heat up tonight as the school board considers a proposal to begin discussing birth control methods in the seventh grade and expand the discussion in the 10th grade. No board action is scheduled.

Since Noah moved to Simi Valley in May, some of his ideological foes have wondered about his political aspirations.

“I think he’s going to run for the school board,” said Paige Moser, a coordinator of the local chapter of the National Organization for Women and a member of the committee that recommended the curriculum changes. “I’d be surprised if he didn’t.”

Noah said he has not decided to run for local office but he hasn’t ruled it out.

“I have no plans for running for the school board, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t,” Noah said.

A new group, the Alliance for Student Empowerment, was formed by students at Royal High School to oppose Noah and parents who favor abstinence-only sex education .

On Monday, the two sides previewed the emotional debate when Noah attended a forum at Royal High organized by the students to encourage others to make their feelings known to the school board.

“Kids need to know the facts, and what other place to learn it than in school?” asked Nitin Nayar, a senior and the school board’s student representative.

As lunch hour ended, many students stayed behind to argue with Noah, who said he attended to hear what students had to say.

“Kids are going to have sex whether you say don’t or you say do,” argued Alecia Burlie, 16, an 11th-grader at Royal. “Shouldn’t they have information?”

“Do you think if kids are going to commit suicide,” Noah responded, “that we should teach them how to do it in a sane way?”

One student accused Noah of moving to Simi Valley for political reasons, a charge Noah denied.

“You moved here to gain political power in our valley,” said Tuong Tran, 17, a senior at the school.

Noah countered that he has not been involved in local politics since moving to Simi Valley, short of volunteering at a polling place during the November election.

“I donated a day at the precinct and that is the sum total of my political involvement here in Simi Valley,” Noah said.

Noah, 36, drew only 1.4% of the vote in a three-way race for the U.S. Senate in 1992, when he lived in Boulder, Colo. But he gained a lot of attention when television stations objected to color photographs in his campaign commercials of aborted fetuses.

Noah said he moved to Simi Valley to take an engineering management job with Advanced Compression Technology. But before leaving Colorado, he told the Denver Post that he couldn’t rule out a bid for the Simi Valley school board.

His race for the Senate last year was Noah’s first attempt to win public office. His antiabortion ads showing dead and dismembered fetuses prompted an FCC ruling that television stations could not ban the ads because Noah was a political candidate.

Noah said he still is treasurer of a political organization known as Marvin’s List, which solicits contributions for Republican candidates who seek federal office and oppose abortion.