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Health Advisory Council: ECISD Should Keep Its Current Sex-Ed Curriculum

Posted on: Thursday, 12 January 2006, 15:00 CST

By David J. Lee, Odessa American, Texas

Jan. 11--The ECISD School Health Advisory Council said Tuesday that the district should continue teaching its current human sexuality curriculum.

Federal funding for the program, which was written for ECISD, runs out this year. The health advisory council voted Tuesday to recommend to the school board that the district apply for funding to continue it.

Council president Rachel Shintani Dobbs said the council voted to recommend the board of trustees continue to use Dreamcatcher, Dreambuilder and the ABC programs in Ector County schools.

As a committee that deals with school health, it is the council's place to make recommendations to the board of trustees on what sexual education the district should teach.

Dobbs said the final decision would be with the board on whether to continue teaching the current curriculum or to ask the health advisory council to find another.

The current program is abstinence-based and funded through federal grants. The program has been in place three years.

Dobbs said the grants that fund the program run out this year, and if the school board chooses to accept the council's recommendation, further grant proposals would have be written.

"Now, that would require that grants be written to get continued funding," Dobbs noted.

ECISD Health Director Laura Mathew said the council made the recommendation Tuesday as part of the timeline it set for itself earlier this year.

The bulk of the sex education program is taught in ninth-grade health classes, though sophomores, juniors and seniors can take the health course on the high school campuses as well.

That one-semester class includes 22 sessions of the federally funded Dreamcatcher. Topics include goals, communication, relationships, anger, alcohol, drugs, sexually transmitted diseases, marriage and teen pregnancy.

Meanwhile, Dreambuilder, a sexual education program for seventh- and eighth-graders, lays the foundation for Dreamcatcher.

Dreambuilder teaches seventh-graders about self-awareness, tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, sexual harassment, sexually transmitted diseases and decision-making and refusal skills.

The first lessons regarding sexual health are taught in the fourth grade when a school nurse teaches about personal hygiene.

The ABC, or Abstinence Best Choice program, is taught over four sessions in the fifth and sixth grade where the classes are split by sex.

Until this year, the district also included a one-day contraception lesson. In November, the board of trustees voted to eliminate the teaching of contraception in the district's schools.

"The council did decide to make statement in our minutes that we made a recommendation to the board to continue to teach contraception, and they voted against it," Mathew said.

Also Tuesday, the Health Advisory Council approved a three-page health and wellness policy for the district.

"It's been fleshed out a little bit according to state and federal mandates," Dobbs said.

The new policy includes CATCH -- coordinated Activities to Children's Health.

Dobbs said CATCH would be integrated into physical education classes if the board of trustees approves the council's recommendation to approve the policy.

"The CATCH program is really more about movement than organized sports or competition," Dobbs said. "It's really movement-based, and the whole concept is to keep children moving and to teach them that exercise is helpful throughout their lives."

Mathew said the policy is something that the council was required to do.

"Federal law said if public schools get federal money for nutrition have to abide by this law," Mathew said. "The law said we have to create a policy, and that policy should address wellness. And it should also address the wellness of faculty and staff."

Mathew said the board of trustees would look at the policy next.

"From here, we take it to the full board, and we ask them to adopt it," she said. "We have to have it in full line, on our Web site and in our policy by May."

The council meets next at noon Feb. 9 at the Career Center.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Odessa American, Texas

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Source: Odessa American

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