THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 27, 1996 TAG: 9602270323
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
A parent's request to reconsider using several sex-education materials at Northeastern High School was denied on appeal by the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Board of Education on Monday.
By a 4-1 vote, the board upheld a series of earlier decisions that approve using all but two of the materials in a ninth-grade health class.
The vote was one of a mere handful of split decisions cast by the board, which is almost always unanimous, in more than two years.
Janice Boyce, the newest board member, cast the no vote. Board member Matt Wood abstained, saying his wife had served on one of the committees that reviewed the materials earlier.
At issue were six videos and a textbook that Jimmy Westbrook, the mother of a Northeastern student, said contained objectionable content that assumed all teens were sexually active and made light of mature situations.
Westbrook had first issued the challenge in October, board member Nita Coleman said in her Academic Affairs Committee report. Over several months, the challenge and related materials were reviewed by several officials.
A district-level Media Advisory Committee recommended that two of the videos not be used in the ninth-grade class, that three could be shown with caution and that one was very suitable for the ninth grade. The committee said the textbook also was suitable.
Superintendent Joe Peel later reviewed and affirmed the committee's position. The board's vote Monday upheld Peel.
Westbrook, who read a long statement to board members Monday, said after the meeting that she did not expect the board to reverse Peel's decision. She said she continued the process to alert other parents to the sex-education materials being used.
Westbrook's letter detailed scenes in videos that included cartoons of boys with erections and admonishments to students to carry condoms with them at all times. Little consideration, she said, was given to abstinence before marriage.
``I had no idea that such videos were being shown,'' Westbrook said during the meeting. ``The community has no idea what's being taught in this school system. . . . They have no idea the immorality being taught.''
Some board members disagreed with Westbrook's characterization of the material.
``I think any time our children turn on the television set, they are taught a lot more about immorality than by anything that goes on in the classroom,'' Coleman said. ``Sexual activity is happening out there, whether or not we choose to address it in school.''
In explaining her no vote, Boyce said she didn't want to go against the board but could not go on record as agreeing with the decisions of the Media Advisory Committee.
Much of Monday's debate will soon be irrelevant because of new state legislation requiring abstinence as the focus of sex education. Any local school board that wants to teach topics such as AIDS awareness and condom use starting this fall will have to hold public hearings, Coleman said. by CNB