Parent Power – No More Co-Ed Sex Ed
by Education
9.28.2005

Abstinence Clearinghouse Update, 9/23/05

The Manteca (Calif.) Bulletin reports that parent pressure led to changes in the Manteca Unified School District sex education policy.

Until last school year, puberty education at Golden West School was taught in co-gender classes, with both boys and girls. After watching a video and participating in discussion on female pubertal changes and the female reproductive cycle, the sixth grade girls complained that they were uncomfortable with the boys being present. The parents of the girls listened.

Golden West parent Tobi Henry collected about 200 signatures from other parents last May on a petition requesting separate classrooms for education related to sexual development

Some of the teachers objected to the parents’ action, saying that the curricula, written for fifth through eighth grades was designed for co-ed classrooms, the videos are equipped with discussion-time segments. It was these discussions that made the sixth grade girls uncomfortable, precipitating the action.

Over the summer, the Superintendent's Student Achievement Committee met to update the district’s policy. Among their recommendations were that all fifth grade puberty classes be separated by sex. Also, sensitive discussions on puberty, anatomy, and sexual activity in the sixth through eighth grade abstinence education courses will be sex separated.

The school districts board of trustees will take public comment and vote on the final proposal in October.

Source: Manteca Bulletin, “Sex ed debate: Coed or not?” September 23, 2005, http://www.mantecabulletin.com/articles/2005/09/23/news/news3.txt