Sex Ed Advisory Board Meets to begin evaluating High School Curriculum and Practices

Last night, the Reproductive Health Advisory Committee (RHAC) of the East Lansing Public Schools (ELPS) met for the first time since the 2013-2014 school year. Interim Chair Susan Wheeler stated that it had been recommended that the group reconvene “because of some things that came up at the high school.” Many parents in the district have been expressing significant concern about the school’s sex ed curriculum since Alice Dreger (disclosure: ELi’s publisher and board president) attended her son’s sex ed class at the high school and strongly objected to what was being taught by the SMART program-affiliated visitors.

Members present at last night’s meeting included Breeann Anderson a parent and health care professional, parent Chris Ahlin, Rabbi Amy Bigman, Kevin DeYoung a local Pastor and author of What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality?, parent and health professional Marianne Flynn, Pinecrest teacher Mary Ellen Vrbanac, ELHS teacher and parent Robert Smith and Tammy Baumann, Director of Educational Services for ELPS.

Wheeler indicated that Committee membership was uncertain because some previous participants had left the group, and that more members were needed.  Michigan law outlines minimum demographic requirements for a district’s Sexual Education Advisory Board, including “parents of children attending the district’s schools, pupils in the district’s schools, educators, local clergy, and community health professionals.”

Although some of the requirements are met, Wheeler allowed as how there had been no student members on the Committee for at least two years. The group discussed the need to publicize openings, particularly to students, and set June 18 as the deadline for applications.

There was also discussion about whether the Committee would meet during the summer, and, if so, how often. More than one of the EL High School students in attendance made the point that the Committee would need to meet fairly often before September if any changes were to be made early in the 2015-2016 school year. Although no decision was made regarding a meeting schedule, DeYoung suggested a Doodle poll of Committee members followed by an attempt to meet again in the next few weeks.

Approximately an hour into the meeting Committee member Bigman observed that there were many students present (including most of the membership of ELHS Students for Gender Equality), and that she sensed that they needed to speak, and to be heard by the Committee. She moved that the agenda be tabled, and that the meeting focus instead on discussion of the sex ed curriculum at the High School, which was the reason that all of the students and most if not all of the community members had come to the meeting. Bigman’s suggestion was accepted by the Committee as a whole, and the agenda was abandoned.

Many issues were discussed, including whether the High School curriculum materials were easily accessible and reviewable by parents, whether any outside group should be paid to teach sex ed to East Lansing students in place of their certified teacher, the fact that many parents had been unaware that the SMART abstinence education program was a part of sex ed at the High School, and whether the District can make more copies of sex ed curriculum be made available for parents to take home and review. The Committee indicated that such an increase in circulating copies was possible, and that they would follow up on the request.

There was also lengthy discussion about the abstinence pledge cards given to students as part of the SMART program’s participation in sex ed classes at the High School. Students, including Sarah Hansen, explained that there was shame attached to the existence of the cards in the classroom, that in one class the cards had been handed to students as they left the classroom and that they had either to sign or decline to sign one at a time, in front of fellow classmates. Hansen described the atmosphere during this process as “tense” and noted that in high school “people talked” about who did or did not take and complete a card.

Lori Bolan, a representative of the SMART program responded that the cards were not mandatory, that she had never passed them out to individual students, and that she, personally, didn’t care whether or not ELHS students chose to complete them. Students responded that even if one was not directly handed a card, their presence in the classroom suggested that sexual activity was shameful, and that cards reading “I am a Sexually Mature Aware Responsible Teen” made it clear that sexually active teens were necessarily “irresponsible.”

Towards the end of the two-and-a-half hour meeting, both SGE students and parents pressed the Committee to make some small-scale decisions before adjourning. Among the specific suggestions were a decision to commit to banning the pledge cards from the classroom, and a change in the group’s name since “Reproductive Health Advisory Committee” implies that the only significant issues in sex ed are related to heterosexuals.

The group declined to vote on anything, citing the mass and complexity of information that they needed to assimilate before proceeding with their work. Wheeler pointed out that re-naming the Committee was an agenda item, that the group was aware of the problems associated with the existing name, and that they had intended to address it before the agenda was discarded for the evening.