NEWPORT BEACH/COSTA MESA : Trustees Delay Vote on Sex Education Tape

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District board has postponed a decision on adding a new sex education video for teen-agers to the curriculum.

The sex education video--called “What About Sex? Teens Speak Out About Parents, Peers & Personal Responsibility”--is proposed for use in seventh- to 12th-grade health education classes and ninth- to 12th-grade family-life and peer-counseling classes.

Supt. Mac Bernd removed the item from board consideration Tuesday, saying the board wants to review the tape further. The video includes depictions of teen-agers discussing decision-making and how that is influenced by their value systems and misconceptions about sex, ways to approach parents to talk about sex and other topics, and how to make decisions about becoming sexually active.

“Its title is more provocative than the actual contents of the tape,” district spokeswoman Nadine Wilck said, adding that a panel of teachers and parents has already reviewed the materials proposed for adoption.

Parents also get a chance to review the materials used for psychology, health, sex education and other classes--which the district classifies as “sensitive”--when their children enroll in these classes, she said.

The board also approved purchases of high school texts on calculus, Latin and economics, as well as literary classics by William Shakespeare and William Faulkner, and modern literature including Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” and Jean Watsuki Houston’s “Farewell to Manzanar.”