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Articles
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| Hearing yields debate on sex-education standards |
VOICE writes, "
By VICTORIA SOLOMON
Current Staff Writer
A hearing on proposed health standards for public schools in the District last Wednesday elicited a slew of opinions about when educators should start talking to children about sex and what those discussions should involve.
The standards, which the State Board of Education will consider today, outline learning benchmarks in health as well as physical education and world languages. The health requirements drew the most comments.
They outline, for example, that fifth-graders should be able to define sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS and describe behaviors that put people at risk for HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections or unintended pregnancy. They should also be able to explain why abstinence is the most effective way to prevent disease or pregnancy.
Under the proposed standards, eighth-graders should be able to define sexual orientation using correct terminology, including being able to explain that as people grow up, they might be attracted to people of different or the same gender."
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The proposal has both opponents and supporters, but board members indicated during the hearing that they had heard mostly support.
Most of the health experts at the hearing spoke in favor of the standards, including members of the D.C. chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and representatives of the Children's National Medical Center, the Metropolitan Washington Public Health Association and the DC Healthy Youth Coalition.
Lee Beers, a pediatrician at the Children's National Medical Center and the director of the hospital's Healthy Generations Program, said the standards are "medically accurate, clear and age- and developmentally appropriate."
Beers said children are having sex at an earlier age than in the past and should know about the consequences.
Kathryn Woodward, director of community health with the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Children's, told board members to look at the standards from the perspective of at-risk youth in D.C., who, if not taught comprehensive health and sex education at an early age, might contract HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections and diabetes. She said girls might become pregnant before they are ready and suffer from obesity. She said many D.C. youth suffer from these problems.
Freddy Possian, a student at Cardozo Senior High School and a representative of the D.C. Youth Advisory Council, said many young people are obese, eat poorly and lack accurate HIV/AIDS information.
Possian, who hails from the Ivory Coast, said health education and sex education were explained better in his country than at Cardozo. "It's time for all youth in D.C. to be educated about health, sex and HIV," he said.
Some people said the standards should include a stronger focus on abstinence and objected to other elements of the health standards.
Moira Gaul, a board member of the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center and director of Women's and Reproductive Health at the Family Research Council, an anti-abortion national group, said the standards are not aligned with what many parents in the city want for their children.
Richard Urban, director of Ultra Teen Choice, said the same: "It does not reflect the majority of what parents want," he said. "There's little discussion of the benefits of abstinence."
The Rev. J. Grace Harley, with Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, said the standards should acknowledge that "many people [abandon] the gay lifestyle ... because you're not born that way."
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Posted on Dec 13, 2007 03:47am.
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