Jun 03, 2005  |  By: ELIZABETH WEILL-GREENBERG  | COMMENTS     

Some observers fear the recent hullabaloo over inclusion of gay topics in Montgomery County’s sex education classes may cross county and even state lines and prompt changes in other schools.

Each state has a sexuality education mandate and some departments of education provide additional guidelines. The context of these mandates and guidelines vary from state to state and even from school to school.

“There is no uniform policy on any of this,” said Martha Kempner of the Sexuality Information & Education Council of the United States.

Because some school districts fear controversy, they preemptively self censor their curriculum, Kempner said. Adopting a program that could be deemed controversial can mean schools fight the battle alone.

“It’s leaving schools and teachers flailing without guidelines,” she said. “Controversy often has chilling effects.”

The Montgomery County Board of Education voted to create a new sex education program last month, after two anti-gay groups sued the school district over complaints that the revised curriculum “normalized” homosexuality.

The debate in Montgomery County has already inspired some parents in Fairfax County, Va., to form their own version of Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum — a Maryland group that opposed the revised sex education program — to protest their board’s approval of pamphlets on emergency contraception, as reported in the Washington Times.

Prince George’s County is also updating its curriculum, a process that began months ago. Its sex education program includes discussions of homosexuality.

Richard Cohen of Parents & Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays said he is watching the situations in Prince George’s County and Fairfax closely.

“We will definitely request they include resources and information on coming out of homosexuality,” Cohen said. “Let it be known PFOX is on the move.”

Pleas for updates
Prince George’s County School District spokesperson John White said that the county would stay on track, despite the situation in Montgomery County.

But Abby Crowley, a board of education member in Prince George’s County, wasn’t as confident. She fears her county’s sex education revisions might be “slowed down.”

Earlier this year she received 20 letters from high school students complaining about the current program.

“They pleaded with me to look at the sex education curriculum,” she said. “[They wanted me] to make it more relevant and make it more up to date.”

The revised class will present facts as it has for years; morality is the purview of the family, she said.

“The scientific community comes down clearly that sexual orientation is not a preference,” Crowley said. “That is where the school has to align.”

If the curriculum includes information on “ex-gays” or that some believe homosexuality is an immoral lifestyle choice, she said it would be clear this is a “minority viewpoint.”

“I want to make sure we haven’t gone against what we know to be factual just in case of avoiding a lawsuit,” she said. “Small groups that represent very few people are wielding considerable power.”

Mat Staver, general counsel for Liberty Counsel, which brought suit against the Montgomery County curriculum, said that since the Maryland dispute, more parents are calling to complain about their children’s sex education classes.

“Under the guise of tolerance,” educators are teaching that homosexuality is “normal and natural” — “a very chic alternative,” he said.

“This [Montgomery County] case sends a message that schools must honor and respect the rights of parents and their children,” Staver said. “It jeopardizes significant resources to defend and lose a case like this.”

Some education activists are concerned that groups like Liberty Counsel, a conservative Florida-based organization, will try to inject their religious views into public schools. Crowley said that school districts need help from the Maryland Department of Education, but the department did not return calls seeking comment.

“[The education department] should support the counties as lawsuits come about from groups that don’t represent the consensus of the community,” Crowley said. “They’re less likely to take on the department of education.”

Content for sex education classes differs greatly. Some states, like Virginia, leave sex education curriculum creation to the school board and a “community involvement team,” which should include local school principals, teachers, parents, board of education members, a member of the clergy and a medical professional.

Maryland requires school boards to work with the county health department. In Maryland the law instructs that “sexual variations,” “contraception” and ...