Simi Parents Group Battles District Over Sex Education

About a dozen conservative Simi Valley parents, frustrated by their school board’s stance on birth control education, formed a grass-roots group last winter to fight the inclusion of such information in sex education classes.

Now that fledgling group, known as Citizens for Truth in Education--or CTE--has grown into a highly vocal organization that boasts a mailing list of more than 800 people, members say.

The group’s emergence has led critics and supporters to a common conclusion: CTE has the ear of Simi Valley school leaders and is defining itself as an education watchdog.

As the new year approaches, organizers of the group are moving full steam ahead with their own agenda, which some people believe should be closely monitored.

“I think any time they get the ear of somebody--and they have the ear of the board--you have to realize they are a force to be reckoned with,” said Paige Moser, coordinator of the local chapter of the National Organization for Women.

In just one year, the group has tried to thwart the Simi Valley Unified School District board’s attempts to approve a new birth control curriculum and fought to defeat the California Learning Assessment System exam.

Two founding members--Walt Madrid and Glenn Woodbury--ran for school board seats in the November election. Both lost, but not without garnering support from like-minded voters who embraced their views on sex education, uniforms and school safety.

“I think the school board is more cautious now that there is a group of concerned parents watching them carefully,” said Matt Noah, a former U. S. Senate candidate who ran under the Christian Pro-Life Party and is a founding member of Citizens for Truth in Education. Noah has since split from the group.

“I think that they are a force in the community,” he said.

But organizers say that was not their intent. They simply want to express the concerns of parents and have elected officials listen.

“We are truly seeking truth. We are trying to figure out what is best for our kids to be taught,” CTE Chairwoman Coleen Ary said.

One of the group’s goals is to research and investigate educational issues, which are detailed in a monthly four-page newsletter. Members consistently attend school board meetings and usually address the board on one or more topics.

They have pushed for a sex education curriculum that teaches only abstinence and a return to rigorous academic standards. Novel teaching methods that promote critical thinking are “feel-good mumbo-jumbo” that does not belong in the classroom, they say.

The group’s strong advocacy of abstinence-only birth control education has attracted the attention of People for the American Way, a self-appointed watchdog of the Christian right.

“We know of CTE,” said Jean M. Hessburg, state director of People for the American Way. “Their views and positions are certainly aligned with the views and positions that national religious right groups hold.”

While some conservative activists in Simi Valley balk at such terms, Ary said sometimes her group does line up behind positions held by religious right organizations.

“I would say that some of that would be true,” she said. “It is certainly true with sex education and the CLAS test. That might not be true of school prayer or creationism. It depends on what the issue is.”

The first and most controversial issue Citizens for Truth in Education tackled was sex education. The issue erupted in April, 1993, when a school trustee questioned the absence of pregnancy prevention information during a review of the district’s curriculum.

“At that time, Debbie Sandland said, ‘Where in this curriculum do we teach kids about birth control?’ And the fact of the matter was, we were not,” said Leslie Crunelle, director of secondary education for the school district.

Sex education is not required in California. But if school districts elect to include it in their curricula, state educators recommend teaching students how to protect themselves against pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, state Department of Education officials said.

At the school board’s direction, a committee made up of school officials, parents and students was formed to develop guidelines for a revised sex education or “family life” curriculum.

The committee recommended that seventh-graders learn about some methods of pregnancy prevention, such as birth control pills and condoms, and that 10th-grade students learn all methods of birth control. The committee also suggested expanding lessons on abstinence and refusal skills.

But the committee’s recommendations triggered a volatile debate in Simi Valley. CTE members cited studies saying that providing birth control information increases teen-age sexual activity, while students asserted that the information was vital in protecting teen-agers against disease and pregnancy.

In February, the school board approved the recommendations and, four months later, a committee of teachers and nurses set out to find materials that would meet those guidelines.

But so far, the committee has been unable to get those materials approved. A proposed curriculum was presented in October, but some trustees found portions of the materials inappropriate, school officials said.

Although the materials were never formally presented for board approval, members of CTE reviewed the texts and assailed trustees for letting teachers and nurses stray from the guidelines, they said.

At an Oct. 18 board meeting, parent Kathy Burke singled out sections in the proposed curriculum that mentioned homosexuality, masturbation and oral sex, and scolded the trustees for allowing such information to be included.

“We never discussed alternative lifestyles,” Glenn Woodbury told the board that night. “I don’t want my boy being taught this.”

Calling the materials a “travesty,” Ary told trustees: “Children will be left to their own designs to determine right and wrong for themselves.”

Trustees received new materials before Christmas break this month, and said they planned to thoroughly scour the revised texts. Once the materials are presented to the public, CTE members said they plan to scour them too.

“They created one huge mess when they created these recommendations,” Ary said. “With sex education, we make no bones about it. . . . The choice that they should make is abstinence.”

That position disturbs some board members and community activists.

“As educators, I feel we need to come in with non-biased information about birth control,” Trustee Carla Kurachi said. “State the facts, state the risks, state the side effects--that’s it. . . . I don’t think telling students what choices they should make is going to be effective.”

Some critics say CTE’s efforts are a threat to education, which could hinder attempts at educational reform.

“I don’t like what they stand for, which is a fear of knowledge,” NOW’s Moser said. “Across the nation, we are seeing people either out of ignorance or out of fear embracing reactionary concepts.”

The group’s rigid stance on such issues as sex education alienates some people, Kurachi said, which could keep CTE from establishing a significant toehold in the community.

“They are a watchdog for their own issues,” Kurachi said. “If they are not willing to reach a middle ground, if it has to be an all or nothing, then they are going to lose the ear of the board.”

But until parents are satisfied that school officials are responding to their concerns, Ary said, Citizens for Truth in Education will continue its efforts.

“It’s never going to be over if the people of Simi Valley don’t feel that the schools are teaching the best way for their kids,” she said.