DATE: Tuesday, July 8, 1997                 TAG: 9707080315

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  106 lines

TEACHERS' VIEWS MIXED ON OPTIONAL SEX ED

Many conservatives like the state's proposal to drop the requirement for schools to teach sex education and have elementary guidance counselors. Many liberals don't.

But what do the teachers - the ones responsible for educating the students - think?

It's a question - unlike many posed in the classroom - with no simple answer.

Some local teacher groups say their members generally oppose making either sex education or guidance counselors optional. Some teachers, though, are sympathetic to the changes.

Marian Flickinger, president of the Norfolk Federation of Teachers, says she can see both sides.

``On the one hand,'' she said, ``it seems more and more is being placed on the schoolteacher to assume the responsibility for what parents did. On the other side of thecoin, there's a concern that if somebody doesn't do it, it's going to be more hurtful to the children. . . .

``It tugs at the heartstrings. What's best for the kids? But if you remove those heartstring tugs, I think there might be feelings of relief. It may be one more thing that we may not have to do. We need more time for the basics.''

State leaders will probably hear from more teachers next week.

On Monday, the state Board of Education will hold four simultaneous hearings across Virginia on proposed changes to the Standards of Accreditation, which govern how schools operate. The local hearing will begin at Norfolk's Lake Taylor High School at 7 p.m.

The proposals on guidance and Family Life Education - which covers sex education and other topics such as safety and nutrition - were pushed by Gov. George F. Allen as last-minute additions to the overall changes. They are expected to draw among the most comments because they were added after the first round of hearings on the accreditation overhaul. The entire package won preliminary approval from the board last month.

Virginia will not be alone if it decides to make sex education optional. Twenty-seven states do not require sex ed, according to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, based in New York.

School officials in local cities have said they intend to continue the programs, even if the board approves the changes.

That's good news, say Lovey Lyons and Dotty Dray, the presidents of, respectively, the Suffolk and Portsmouth Education Associations. But they wish the state board would retain the mandates - just in case there's a local change of heart.

Both say the teachers they represent overwhelmingly support keeping the requirements.

``By and far, teachers in Suffolk are happy with the Family Life Education program,'' Lyons said. ``A lot say, `I wouldn't want to teach it, but I think it needs to be taught.' ''

Lyons herself is one of the family-life teachers. She says she thinks too many parents don't discuss sex with kids.

``If we let these children get information from their friends and peers, you've got a lot of misinformation going around,'' she said. ``Kids are misinforming other kids. It's a vicious cycle.''

Sex education, as Lyons sees it, is part of the job of schools: ``I sometimes look at education as a bridge. It's a bridge to complete what started at home, what they see at school and what they need to become responsible adults.''

Dray, an English teacher at Cradock Middle School in Portsmouth, feels the same way about guidance.

``Guidance counselors in elementary schools are an absolute necessity,'' Dray said. ``There has to be somebody there for those students. We can't always leave it to the parents, because sometimes the problems are at home.''

Burnette Boone knows this. The preschool teacher at Suffolk's Mount Zion Elementary School has seen kids troubled by violence at home.

``As a classroom teacher, with some of the baggage children bring to school with them, it would be difficult for me to deal with it,'' she said. Especially with larger class sizes, some of these students ``need more attention, and the counselor does that.''

Boone supports the Family Life Education requirement. It teaches youngsters to be ``careful about strangers, good and bad touches. These are things that children need to be taught, and they're not necessarily taught at home.''

Lee Ware, one of the most influential teachers in the state, sees it differently. Ware, a history teacher at Powhatan High School outside Richmond, is a member of the state Board of Education.

He said he voted to strike down the mandates for two reasons. One is a matter of setting priorities.

``I think the schools have been asked to pick up more and more of the burden of our social ills,'' Ware said. ``In doing so, they are necessarily distracted from their central mission. . . . To the extent there is a need for state standards, they ought to be on the essential purposes of schools, which are academic.''

Second, deciding whether to have sex ed, he said, should be a local decision. ``When you allow those decisions to be made at the local level, that's the best place for them. Local parents, teachers and interested citizens have a more direct voice at the local level.''

Michelle Easton, president of the board, said the debate on sex ed and guidance shouldn't obscure the bigger points.

``I am somewhat astounded at the tremendous interest in the very simple notion that local school districts ought to be able to decide for themselves if they want to do these two non-academic courses,'' she said. ``It's such a small part of a big package, where we are changing the way we do business in Virginia.''

Among the more important changes, according to Easton: tougher graduation standards and requirements that 70 percent of a school's students eventually pass new standardized tests for the school to retain accreditation.

The board will not take a final vote on the accreditation changes before September, she said. Just because the board initially voted 8-1 to approve them doesn't mean it's a done deal, she said.

``We listen with care and attention to all the comments always. It's wrong to prejudge the board.'' KEYWORDS: SEX EDUCATION

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