SIMI VALLEY : Sex Education Curriculum OKd

After nearly two years of volatile community debate, the Simi Valley school board has approved a new sex education curriculum that provides students with birth-control information while stressing abstinence.

The board voted 4 to 1 Tuesday night to adopt new sex education materials, which seventh- and 10th-grade teachers will use in their classrooms starting next fall.

Trustee Norm Walker opposed the new curriculum, saying it needed more of an emphasis on abstinence. “My feeling is simply this: I don’t think the abstinence message is strong enough,” he said.

But other board members said the materials meet guidelines established by a committee of parents, students and school officials. “It is a community-consensus curriculum,” board President Diane Collins said. “For that reason, I support it.”

A push to revise Simi Valley Unified’s sex education curriculum began in April, 1993, when Trustee Debbie Sandland questioned the absence of birth-control information.

At the board’s direction, a birth-control committee was formed to create guidelines for a revised curriculum.

The committee recommended that seventh-graders learn about some methods of pregnancy prevention, such as birth-control pills and condoms, and that tenth-grade students learn about all methods of birth control.

The board approved those recommendations in February, 1994, and four months later a group of teachers and nurses set out to find classroom materials.

Throughout the process, critics assailed the curriculum, either for failing to include enough birth-control information or for containing too much.

Tuesday’s board meeting was no exception, as a handful of angry parents lambasted trustees for supporting what parents described as a “mediocre” curriculum.

“Unfortunately, this program will not affect the sexual attitudes of our teen-agers,” said Paige Moser, one of six speakers who asked the board to reject the new materials.