Hemet Schools Scrap Sex Education Over Suit : Education: Board drops curriculum rather than teach about contraception. Plaintiffs say district is abdicating its responsibility.

Faced with an expensive lawsuit challenging the use of a sex education curriculum that preaches abstinence and avoids mention of contraception, trustees of the Hemet Unified School District have decided to get rid of sex education altogether.

A sharply divided school board voted 4 to 3 Tuesday night to teach only state-mandated AIDS health education; the board majority said parents should resume the role of primary sex educators of their children.

Although sex education is not required in California, the vast majority of school districts offer it in some form, and most incorporate some discussion of contraception.

For several years, Hemet’s sex education focused almost exclusively on abstinence and all but discarded discussion of contraception. On Tuesday, the board said it would rather offer no sex education to seventh- and ninth-graders than offer a curriculum that included discussions of contraception.

The board voted to immediately drop the use of the controversial programs “Sex Respect,” “Teen-Aid” and “Choosing the Best,” each of which had been criticized as skewed toward a conservative Christian agenda.

The district was sued in October by parents who said the three programs violated state curriculum guidelines, were distorted and contained misinformation and inaccuracies. The lawsuit was supported by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the civil liberties advocacy organization People for the American Way.

School board President Gary Young, who sided with the conservative majority, said the catalyst for dropping the three programs was the cost--$100,000 or more--in fighting the lawsuit even before it reached appellate levels.

“This community has been divided on what should be taught for years. The very conservative faction stressed abstinence, and the other faction supported a very comprehensive program,” Young said. “There has been no middle ground on this issue.”

Young argued that the school district should not present information about contraception. “It’s like driver’s education: We teach students to obey the law and not to speed,” he said. “But we don’t tell them about radar detectors and demonstrate to them how to use them.”

The board majority’s philosophy, he said, is “if we can’t teach it right, then we shouldn’t teach it at all.”

It is better, he said, for parents to teach sex education to their children. “We really need to return the responsibility back to the parents, and tell them it’s their job to teach their children about sex education and the values they approve of in their own homes.”

Trustee Gisela Gosch, who opposed the use of the three abstinence programs, said she was distressed that the district was abandoning sex education.

“This is a disservice to our kids,” she said. “Kids need a proper education and need to know the pitfalls that are out there, and how to protect themselves and make good choices. But now this is being relegated back to the playground and the gutters.”

The board’s decision also angered the attorneys who had sued the district.

“What Hemet has done is totally out of the mainstream of American public opinion and a disservice to the students of Hemet,” said Judith Schaeffer, attorney for People for the American Way.

Carole I. Chervin, an attorney for Planned Parenthood, called the Hemet decision a “cop-out.”

“Parents teach sexuality every day . . . but there are certain topics that parents themselves reach out and say, ‘We need help,’ and the school is the best place for that help.”

Attorney Debra L. Fischer, who represented the parents in the lawsuit, said her clients were pleased that the contested material has been dropped by the district, “but getting rid of sex education altogether certainly was not the goal of the lawsuit. The board has abdicated its responsibility.”

The attorneys who sued the district said they were not yet sure whether they would drop the lawsuit because it contained several other unresolved issues, including what material to use to instruct students about AIDS.