Delaware Valley to Re-Examin Sex-Ed Plan
By Megan Reiter and Sarah Hofius Hall, The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
Jul. 6–The Delaware Valley School District will soon start re-examining its sex-education plan, after mailing a letter to parents about 300 students being diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases.
Though the numbers are being disputed, the district plans to review its health curriculum to see what improvements it can make.
“We think it’s time to look at it and say, ‘Do we have the latest research?’ ” said Delaware Valley Superintendent Candis Finan, Ed.D.
Meanwhile, across the region, superintendents say they are confident in their sex-education curriculums, which vary from district to district.
While many districts in the area stress abstinence, superintendents do acknowledge the importance of educating students about STDs.
“We don’t preach abstinence, but we try to encourage it as a means to avoiding contracting any of those types of diseases,” said William King, interim superintendent of the Scranton School District.
At Delaware Valley, sex education starts around third or fourth grade and continues through graduation. The sex education ties in with other lessons, Dr. Finan said.
“I think abstinence will be the core of the message,” the superintendent said of the soon-to-be reviewed curriculum. However, she said that teaching about communicable diseases is parallel to teaching about prevention.
Western Wayne students learn about aspects of sex education in third, sixth, ninth and 11th grades — but Assistant Superintendent Clay LaCoe, Ed.D., stressed the message matches the students’ ages.
Western Wayne’s sexual education program follows what Dr. LaCoe describes as “three strands.” The first two strands deal with “good decision making” and HIV and STDs, he said.
“The last strand is really on abstinence education,” Dr. LaCoe said.
Superintendents from school districts including Carbondale, North Pocono, Dunmore, Abington Heights and Valley View say their curricula also stress abstinence and go over the risks associated with STDs.
At Wayne Highlands, the district does not “advocate any particular position,” said Superintendent Thomas Jenkins.
“It focuses on human reproduction,” he said, adding that students also learn about sexually transmitted diseases, birth control and abstinence.
Wayne Highlands students receive their first sexual education lesson in fifth grade. Mr. Jenkins said the fifth grade students are split by gender and educated by a teacher or nurse of the same sex.
Unless informed by a health clinic or other agency, high schools have no way of knowing whether their students are infected with a sexually transmitted disease. “Generally, those issues are resolved between the students and their medical care providers, but certainly we are aware of their impacts,” said Michael Mahon, Ph.D., Abington Heights superintendent.
Ellen Orben, R.N., Delaware Valley school nurse chairwoman, sent a letter dated June 15 to 3,000 families, encouraging parent-child sex education communication. While the president and executive director of Maternal and Family Health Services is disputing the 300 STD diagnoses, the district is supporting Ms. Orben. The district has no documentation of the letter’s claims, but Ms. Orben said she received the statistics via phone from a medical staffer at MFHS’s Milford clinic.
“I personally did not completely panic,” parent Terry Balton, of Dingman Township, said of receiving the letter.
Though concerned, Mrs. Balton, who is president of the Parent, Teacher, Student Association at Delaware Valley High School and teaches an Odyssey of the Mind team, has a close relationship with her kids — Ryan, who graduated in 2007, and Dustin, 17, who’ll be a senior in the fall.
“I’m very involved with my kids, always have been … I definitely feel that helped me not to panic,” she said.
As for the apparent discrepancy in the letter, Mrs. Balton, who said she is no “bus stop gossiper,” plans to get her future information from the source.
“I’m looking forward to the next (school) board meeting,” she said.
Contact the writers mreiter@timesshamrock.com shofius@timesshamrock.com
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