School Board Listens to Sex Education Debate : Simi Valley: Meeting to discuss proposed birth control information draws 150 residents. Officials state their positions.

A debate over when--or whether--birth control should be taught in Simi Valley schools has officially begun before the school board, with parents toting stacks of reports on condom failure rates and placard-waving students chanting: “Ignorance, no. Education, yes.”

A standing-room-only crowd of more than 150 residents attended the Simi Valley Unified School District’s board meeting Tuesday to discuss a proposal to include birth control information in course work as early as the seventh grade, even though the board was not scheduled to take action.

With matching white ribbons pinned to their lapels, opponents of the proposed change in the district’s family life curriculum questioned whether school officials should identify condoms and other birth control methods as an acceptable second choice to abstinence. Many cited 10% to 15% condom failure rates.

“Every time someone in this room talks about the rising teen pregnancy rate, it points to the failure of these (sex-education) programs,” parent Coleen Ary told the board. “The real answer is not birth control. It is self-control.”

Matt Noah and other members of Citizens for Truth in Education, a newly formed parents group, quoted studies saying that providing birth control information increases teen-age sexual activity by giving students a green light to become sexually active.

But some students and other proponents of the curriculum change rejected those studies as biased and invalid.

About 40 high school students, who recently formed a group called the Alliance for Student Empowerment, jammed the meeting carrying signs with slogans such as, “More prevention, less abortions.”

An organizer of the student group, Royal High School senior Nitin Nayar, told board members that students should be encouraged to practice abstinence as the only sure way to prevent pregnancy and disease. But educators cannot leave sexually active students in the dark, Nitin said.

“The rate of aspirin curing a headache would be zero if you don’t know to put it in your mouth,” Nitin, 17, said.

After four hours of testimony, with nearly an even number of people expressing opinions on each side of the issue, board members stated their positions while stressing that a vote would not be taken until Feb. 22.

Board members Debbie Sandland, Diane Collins and Carla Kurachi supported the inclusion of birth control information, while Judy Barry and Doug Crosse disagreed. Barry said she wants the board to study abstinence-only programs used in some other school districts.

“We are playing Russian roulette,” Barry said. “At some point, we know there is going to be a failure even if they use (birth control) every time.”

But Sandland said the board must respond to the reality that many teen-agers become sexually active with incorrect or no information about protecting themselves from pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

“If parents aren’t teaching it and the schools aren’t teaching it, where are our students learning this information?” Sandland said.

A 25-member committee spent more than three months developing recommendations for when and how students should be taught about birth control. The school board formed the committee to study the possibility of including pregnancy prevention information in the sex education curriculum.

The committee recommended that seventh-graders learn about methods which it said many 12-year-olds already have heard about, including birth control pills and the condom. In addition, the committee’s report calls for expanding lessons on the benefits of abstinence and developing refusal skills.

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By 10th grade, the discussion would expand to include all methods of birth control. At both the seventh- and 10th-grade levels, questions about sexuality would be sent home for students to discuss with their parents.

Parent Kathy Burke said teaching students about birth control information ignores the emotional and psychological benefits to avoiding sex before marriage.

“What can a condom do to protect the vulnerable psyche of a teen-ager?” Burke said.

But Royal High sophomore Chris Coumalan said some teen-agers will be sexually active regardless of what teachers tell them. Those students deserve to be informed fully, he said.

“If we can take classes about child care, why not learn about birth control?” Chris said.

NEXT STEP

The Simi Valley Unified School District will hold two informational meetings in January on the proposal to add birth control information to the district’s family life curriculum. The meetings are scheduled for Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. at Sequoia Junior High School, 3570 Cochran St.; and Jan. 20 at 6:30 p.m. at Berylwood Elementary School, 2300 Heywood St. A vote is scheduled for Feb. 22.