DATE: Sunday, July 20, 1997                 TAG: 9707200059

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  124 lines

ASSEMBLY LOOKS TO GUARD SEX EDUCATION, COUNSELORS LAWMAKERS DON'T WANT STATE EDUCATION BOARD UNDOING THEIR 1987 INITIATIVES.

The state Board of Education may not have the last word if it votes to make sex education and elementary guidance counselors optional in public schools.

Some local legislators, miffed that the board might undo their work of a decade ago, said last week that they're strongly considering legislation next year to reinstate mandates for sex education and elementary guidance.

``I'm hopeful the state board will leave it (the requirements) the way it is,'' said Del. J. Paul Councill Jr., D-Franklin, chairman of the House Education Committee. ``If they don't, I certainly think we will be looking to respond to the wishes of the people in Virginia.

``If it takes legislation, we may be considering that.''

Sen. Stanley C. Walker, D-Norfolk, co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, agreed.

``If they go through with that, I think there will be some action in the General Assembly to try to offset that, because the people who have testified are overwhelmingly opposed'' to changes, Walker said. ``Both of those programs seem to be working.''

At a public hearing last Monday at Norfolk's Lake Taylor High School, the overwhelming majority of speakers on the subjects favored maintaining the requirements. But Sen. Edward L. Schrock, R-Virginia Beach, who attended the hearing, said that doesn't necessarily reflect public opinion.

``You can stack the deck to make it read any way you want,'' he said Friday. ``I think if you polled the average citizen, you might find the opposite.''

Schrock said he supports the board's plan and won't vote for a bill to keep the programs mandatory.

``I'm just afraid that the school system might be getting into an area that should be left to the church and home,'' he said. ``When it gets to things that personal, that needs to be at the family level.''

Whether such legislation will succeed hinges on the results of this fall's legislative and gubernatorial elections.

Both candidates for governor have staked opposing positions on the issue.

Republican James S. Gilmore III wants the programs to become optional; Democrat Donald S. Beyer Jr. doesn't.

Mark Miner, Gilmore's spokesman, said, ``He believes localities should have the option on school-related issues, and he will support the governor on this matter.''

Beyer - in a statement issued after Gov. George F. Allen proposed making sex ed and elementary guidance optional - decried both ideas.

On sex ed, he said: ``The classes provide an important prevention message. Parents who want their children to hear that message should be able to.''

The changes are last-minute additions to the Board of Education's overhaul of the state's Standards of Accreditation, which govern how public schools operate. The board initially approved the changes last month, but held hearings across the state Monday to get more public response.

The board is expected to cast a final vote in September.

Michelle Easton, the president of the board, also heard criticism at the Northern Virginia hearing Monday. But she doesn't think that will sway her vote. ``I don't expect any more changes, but you never know,'' she said. ``We have a month to talk. . . .

``The state Board of Education has to represent all the people, not just the ones who come to the hearings and the special-interest groups that organize the letter-writing campaigns. It's our view that the people want these kind of nonacademic kind of decisions made at the local level.''

The debate over sex education and elementary guidance also has spawned legal confusion. Some educators and legislators wonder whether the board has the authority to reverse the mandates after the General Assembly, and then-Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, approved a sex education program in 1987.

``There is some question as to whether they can do that,'' Walker said. ``Obviously, they think they can.''

Easton, who is a lawyer, and other state officials say it's legitimate. State Attorney General Richard Cullen said in a statement: ``I strongly support Governor Allen's initiative and have advised him that it's completely legal.''

The statute passed by the legislature doesn't say, point-blank, that every school must teach sex education. It begins: ``The Board of Education shall develop by Dec. 1, 1987, standards of learning and curriculum guidelines for a comprehensive, sequential family life education curriculum in grades K through 12.''

The law goes on to say that curriculum guidelines should include subjects such as human sexuality, ``the value of postponing sexual activity,'' and sexually transmitted diseases. After the law was passed, the board revised its accreditation standards to require Family Life Education in every school.

There is no Virginia law requiring elementary guidance counselors, state officials said. That, too, is covered by the accreditation standards, which are under the board's purview.

Easton said about the sex-ed statute: ``It's clear that that section of the (Virginia) code required the board to put out a program for it; that's a different thing from mandating the schools to have it.''

John J. McGlennon, chairman of the government department at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, said, ``Just hearing it (the law) doesn't lead me to an opinion one way or the other.'' But ``if the (legislature) can demonstrate they intended for this to be a mandatory program, I would think the state Board of Education would have to rethink their decision.''

But rather than take the issues to court, McGlennon said, legislators probably will try to take matters into their own hands next session. They could propose a straight-out mandate for guidance and sex ed. Another option, Walker said, would be to grant themselves final approval over the accreditation standards.

A bill to that effect died in this year's session.

Sen. Warren E. Barry, R-Fairfax, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said the decision should be the General Assembly's, though he was not sure he would vote for the type of bill Walker and Councill are considering.

Del. Jerrauld C. Jones, D-Norfolk, a supporter of the guidance and sex-ed requirement, said it's too early to say how he he would vote. But he called specious the ``local control'' argument used by advocates of the change.

Each local school system designed its own sex-ed curriculum, and the state allows parents to remove their children from the program.

``This is not anything the state has forced down the throats of parents,'' Jones said. ``To turn it on its head is a move by the minority of persons to try to impose their will on the majority, who don't find any offensiveness.''

Easton, the board president, disagreed.

``What the board is doing is taking the middle ground - how very reasonable and moderate,'' she said. ``We're not saying you must do it; we're not saying you can't do it. That's not an extreme position.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos

Sen. Stanley C. Walker is open to legislative action to ensure sex

education and elementary guidance counseling continue.

Sen. Edward L. Schrock said he supports the Board of Education and

won't vote to keep the programs mandatory. KEYWORDS: SEX EDUCATION VIRGINIA

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