Let's talk about sex!

It may not be as easy as veteran hip-hop duo Salt-n-Pepa made it sound in 1991, particularly as it pertains to the public school system.

Schools often have to walk a fine line when it comes to incorporating reproductive health, family life and pregnancy prevention into their curriculum. A stringent system of checks and balances coupled with the valued input of parents is what officials say helps make the transition easier.

North resident Marie Laird said that system, however, was not applied in an instance involving her 7-year-old developmentally delayed daughter, Annabel, at Dover Elementary School on March 12. She said the kindergartner's comment after seeing two male students wrestling in her class on March 7 did not warrant the discussion that was to follow between Annabel and her teacher and guidance counselor.

Annabel made the remark that the boys were "having sex." Her mother said her daughter being taken to the guidance counselor's office five days later for "a serious discussion with her on what sex was" was inappropriate, especially since Marie wasn't n.jpgied about it beforehand.

"I was stunned. I said, 'Excuse me?' She (the teacher) said, 'Annabel observed something Friday, and the comment that she made concerned me.' I was infuriated for them to sit down my with my 7-year-old daughter to discuss sex with her in any nature," Laird said.

"Basically they told me that they told her that they (the boys) were not having sex and that is not how you have sex. It's not for them to tell her that they're not having sex. I should have been n.jpgied. I feel violated and as if my rights and my limit of responsibility on raising my children morally and as a Christian have been taken away a little bit," Laird said. "Let's not have a stroke and make a child feel that sex is a bad word."

Laird, who removed her child from the school and is now considering home schooling, said the Orangeburg Consolidated School District 5 office told her she needed to contact the school principal and let the administrator handle the matter.

"Everybody's got a procedural definition instead of admitting personally that this was wrong. There's just so many other issues that are going on. Where was the maturity in this to the point where not only were they going to eliminate me as a parent, but wait five days afterward to contact me? It just bothers me that they're trying to make a stand on so many things, but yet morally they're violating my child's right to developing her own intelligence and asking her own questions," Laird said.

The state has a set of standards governing what is taught in public schools about sex. The state Board of Education approved the South Carolina Health and Safety Standards, which provide the scope and sequence for age-appropriate comprehensive health education, in May 2002. Along with the standards, the Comprehensive Health Education Act, or CHEA, of 1988 requires that each school board appoint a CHE advisory committee to assist in the selection of curriculum components and materials.

Each district advisory committee must carefully review all reproductive-health, family-life and pregnancy-prevention education materials before they are used in the schools.

"The state board of education chooses the health education material, but the local districts may use different or additional material. It involves the development of a 13-member panel to review it locally and approve it for recommendation to the local (school) board," said Lynn Hammond, director of South Carolina Healthy Schools.

S.C. Healthy Schools is a division of the state Department of Education that focuses on improving the health of students and staff by providing coordination and resources in eight component areas of school health. Health education and services, physical education and nutrition, counseling and psychological services are among them.

Of the North incident, Hammond said, "It's a real balancing act there, particularly with young children. It sounds like more one-to-one counseling. I don't know that it (the law) would apply there. That would be a call for somebody else to make."

She said the law, however, does provide specific information on parents' right to exempt a child from comprehensive health education program classes without penalty. Their right to be n.jpgied of the content of instruction in reproductive health, family life and pregnancy prevention is also made clear.

"The parents are given the right to review the materials and exempt their child. The principal is responsible for that n.jpgication. Our law is an opt-out law. Parents don't have to send the notice back unless they don't want their child to participate. With an opt-in law, you'd have to get a permission slip from every child before they participate," Hammond said.

Dr. Darrell M. Johnson, superintendent of Orangeburg Consolidated School District 4, said the incident at Dover Elementary School is indicative of the delicate balance that school districts maintain with sex education.

"That could have happened in any district in any area of the state. Fifty percent of the parents would have wanted their child to be told accurate and right information, whereas the other 50 percent would say, 'It's my responsibility and not the school's,'" he said, noting that parents are welcome to review their child's educational materials beyond their mandatory n.jpgication.

"They're welcome to sit in on a class, or have their child have alternative assistance instead of the class. There's a pretty good dialogue there. We have sex education at different levels in our health education program books ... but we're also accommodating to the parents and family values as well," he said.

"Often when books are selected by the state to be on the state adoption list, they go through their board of education, and they have parent and teacher committees look at them before they even make the list. There are a lot of checks and balances there," Johnson said.

Hammond said local school districts and the S.C. Healthy Schools division both provide teachers with training in comprehensive health education as it pertains to sex education.

"We stress the latest information, particularly about pregnancy prevention and STDs, and some of the best protection in delivering this instruction. We really want to make sure that there's a local review process. They can't just go in there and teach whatever they want to," Hammond said. "The CHE Act includes all health education, but it's very specific about what you can and can't do about sexual education."

Under the CHEA, safety and accident prevention and community, consumer and nutritional health are among the components taught to grades kindergarten through fifth grade for 75 minutes per week for 36 weeks. There is no explanation, however, of sexually transmitted diseases and contraception methods. No contraceptive device or medication is distributed in or on school grounds.

"Age-appropriate instruction in reproductive health may be included at the discretion of the school board. More girls are going through puberty in elementary school now instead of middle school," said Hammond, who also noted that while the law is an "abstinence-based law, it is not an abstinence-only law."

Greg Carson, executive assistant to the superintendent in Orangeburg Consolidated School District 5, said the district has added the Scott & White Worth the Wait program to its curriculum.

"It's an abstinence sex education curriculum which focuses on helping adolescents to make informed decisions about sexual behavior and promotes abstinence as the healthiest choice for kids," he said.

Proactive life skills and goal-setting are part of the sixth-grade curriculum, along with an introduction to puberty and teen pregnancy, he said. Role-playing and refusal skills are part of the seventh-grade curriculum. Additional peer pressure and limit-setting skills are added in the eighth grade.

"On the high school level, all topics are covered in full detail. The parents have total control. If a parent wants to opt their children out of it, they have the full right to do it. They just need to make it known to us," Carson said.

Under the CHEA, instruction in grades 6-8 includes prenatal care and development and STDs. STD instruction must be taught within reproductive health, family life or pregnancy prevention, or as a separate component. Instruction in family life education or pregnancy prevention, or both, may be included at the local school board's discretion.

Sixth-grade students are taught 75 minutes per week for 36 weeks, while grades 7-8 are allocated 250 minutes per week for nine weeks.

At least one time during the four years of grades 9-12, each student receives comprehensive health education to include at least 750 minutes of reproductive health and pregnancy-prevention education. For grades 6-12, exclusions include instruction concerning alternative lifestyles from heterosexual relationships, except in the context of STDs. Abortion is also not included as a method of birth control.

"There are some other restrictions ... but it's still life skills that students need to know," Hammond said. "Parents are the primary teachers of sexuality education; however, some are not comfortable talking about it."

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton×anddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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