
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 6, 1990                   TAG: 9004061099
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                                LENGTH: Short

ACLU THREATENS TO BRING SUIT OVER SEX-ED BROCHURE

The American Civil Liberties Union has threatened to sue the Chesapeake school system over a sex education brochure that calls premarital sex a sin and virginity a gift from God.

The brochure distributed in Family Life Education classes violates the separation of church and state and must be removed immediately, the ACLU said Thursday in an ultimatum faxed to School Superintendent C. Fred Bateman.

Bateman did not send the ACLU a reply, saying he considered the issue moot since the brochure is not scheduled to come up again on this year's curriculum calendar.

Bateman said the brochure would be reviewed this summer with the rest of the Family Life curriculum.

Stephen B. Pershing, legal director of the Virginia ACLU, said the group did not consider the issue dead and would decide what course to take after it receives a formal reply.

"Mr. Bateman and the school administration ought to start squirming immediately because our suggestion that they might face legal action is not a threat. It's a promise," Pershing said.

The brochure was distributed to ninth-graders as part of a section on the importance of setting standards for saying no to premarital sex. It was not used in any other grades.

by CNB