Montgomery Parents View Sex-Ed Video

[JI7]

<The viewing of "Protect Yourself," produced by the school district for use in 10th-grade classrooms, was sponsored by a group opposed to the video. Audience members were mostly engrossed as they watched a young woman on the screen talk about abstinence, safe sex and the properties of latex, then unroll a condom onto a cucumber.

The video concluded to mostly awkward silence. Then members of the audience had their say.

"Condoms are not working," said Walter Harders, an insurance agent who took a turn at the microphone. "Our children are getting pregnant, and they are getting sexually transmitted diseases, and it has to stop."

The school board approved the video for districtwide use in November, adding it to the health education curriculum along with a pilot program on sexual orientation that also has been drawn into the community debate about values and parental rights.

Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, the group that sponsored the presentation, handed out fliers listing elements of the revised curriculum that they deem offensive, immoral or inappropriate. They also circulated petitions urging the school board to discard it. >

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50244-2005Mar19.html

[TahitiNut]

1. What size was the cucumber?

:silly: No wonder the condoms aren't working. A cucumber isn't where it goes.

[da_chimperor]

5. I thought they went on banannas.

:silly:

[Chrisduhfur]

16. lol good one.

Good one... hahhaha I actually laughed out loud with that one...

[chelsea0011]

2. Condoms never work when you don't use them

[Demeter]

3. Gee! Maybe They Learned Something!

IT could happen.

[donco6]

4. Oh brother.

It's an opt-in program. What these people are protesting is the fact that OTHER people are watching and allowing their kids to watch this video. Can you get more paternalistic?

[seemunkee]

13. Not really opt-in

Its a part of the 1 semester health class that is mandatory for graduation. You do have to get parental permission for that segment of the class but I wouldn' charaterize it as opt-in.
I signed it without hesitating. As far as I know my daughter isn't pregnant and my son hasn't impregnated anyone.
From what my daughter told me about the kids in that class it's a little too late to start teaching this stuff.

[seemunkee]

6. Why didn't I know about this screening

Sounds like it was selective invitation.
There is no 10th grade curriculum that would be showing this. There is a requirement to take health education in high school which most kids take in 9th.

[Frances]

7. When I was growing up in Alabama

the only sex ed we got was a pamphlet put out by Kotex explaining menstruation. I remember how shocked I was to learn that it was OK to wash your hair when you had your period.

When my children attended MCPS (Montgomery County Public Schools) they got a pretty good sex education.

There were more teen pregnancies in my small Bible Belt all white high school than at my daughters' school.

[Toots]

8. "Our children are getting pregnant,

Apparently "Abstinence" is not working either....

[MountainLaurel]

9. Dollars to donuts

That "their" children are getting pregnant because they are so utterly ignorant about how their bodies work. The kids whose parents are honest with them about sexuality issues and give them science-based information aren't the ones getting knocked up at 14. However, they are the ones who are more likely to be preyed upon by others, because they're too embarassed or unconfident to say no.

[Chrisduhfur]

17. Ideally we should mix them both...

Of course it would be best for teens to avoid sex. However, it is stupid to rely on that totally. There needs to be a mixture of both safe sex methods and hopefully helping teens realize that it is a good idea to hold off until they're ready to handle the possible results. Of course I am sure my opinion on this will piss off people on both sides, but to me, it seems to be the most rational.

[sandnsea]

18. I agree

The thing that struck me about my daughter's sex-ed video was that they had a teen girl pictured with the baby and the boy figuring out how to pay for it. Separately. The concept that money and time was the responsibility of both parents just wasn't there. Or marriage either. That was back in 1994. Tweaking sex ed just a bit was a good idea. Of course the second these right wingers got a hold of it, all reason went out the window.

[NYdemocrat089]

22. I agree

I personally believe it is smart to be abstinent, but there are some who disagree. At least if the teens who disagree do have sex they'll know how to be safe.

[napi21]

10. My biggest fear is that lots of kids aren't being taught at all.

I'm 62 now, but my parents NEVER talked about sex to me AT ALL! I know it was a no-no to discuss sex in public back then, but many parents were too ashamed (I guess) to even mention the subject. We didn't learn it in school, and the way I found out that there even was a sex act was when my little girlfriend came to my house one day and said, "Come on out here, I have to tell you something my sister just told me." We snuck off to a corner of the back porch and she whispered all her new found info to me. At the end of the graphic description she said "Oooo yuck! It sounds awful and I bet it really hurts too!" We were about 12 at the time.

I'm afraid a similar lack of education is still occurring today.

It was wrong then, and still is. I think sex education in schools is the best way to go. If parents want to emphasize abstinence, or other personal beliefs, by all means they should do that, but in addition to what was taught in school.

I got married when I was 21, and for several years, I used to laugh at jokes I heard at work, and then come home and ask my husband what they meant.

I learned a lot over the years, but I don't want it to take that long for kids. Teach all the basics in school, and let the parents teach the principals.

[LiberallyInclined]

11. after the parents teach the principals...

they should go home and teach their children the principles.

[ldf]

20. maybe it should be

after the "principals" teach the "parents", the parents should go home and teach the children.

and maybe it should be required that the children take the video home and watch it WITH THE PARENTS. and every single parent should be REQUIRED to say if they were a virgin or not, when they got married. that is IF they are even married to start with.

that way they can "undo" any damage done by the video.

i believe most of these parents don't want to have "the talk" to their kids, regardless of the setting.

it's just another extension of the "not in my backyard" school of thought.

"not in MY family", and while were at it, not in YOUR family either, because I said so.

[Azathoth]

12. It's hard to make condoms work when you refuse to teach kids to use them

:eyes:

[mutus_frutex]

14. From a foreigner: the US is fucked up when it comes to sex

No pun intended.

I mean, to me this is so beyond stupid that is difficult to comprehend. Inst this supposed to be the land of personal freedom? These retards trying to force their stupid beliefs unto everybody else is just enervating.

[Il_Coniglietto]

15. This is my old school district

I took Health/Sex Ed. in 10th grade there (two years ago), but I don't remember seeing any video like this or similar to it. We saw a lot of videos that had dramatized date-rape situations and that sort, but nothing dealing with condoms and the correct usage of condoms. Actually, now that I think about it, I don't think we really discussed abstinence all that much. I think the focus wasn't "don't have sex," but "if you're having sex, have safe sex." No videos, though. :shrug:

I do remember dicussing gender identity in 8th grade Health class, but I think most of us saw it as something funny and not entirely serious. Middle school mentality, I guess.

These right-wingers can pass out all the fliers they want, but it won't change anything. This is a pretty liberal area and I have a feeling that if the video was removed from the curriculum, there would be a protest over that for letting these people control the school district.

[athenap]

19. Slightly OT, but that headline...

"Montgomery Parents View Sex-Ed Video...Suddenly Realize How They Became Parents"

I just couldn't resist.

I hope for the sake of these kids' lives and health and well-being they leave the video in the curriculum. Honestly, the one woman claiming the video identified "cool" and "not cool" w/r/t abstaining or sex and such...come on, lady. By tenth grade, they don't need school videos telling them what's cool and what's not.

And as for the "homosexual agenda" wingnuts...have a heapin' helpin' of some STFU already. Take your morality and stick it somewhere somebody cares. It's more immoral to let an entire generation walk around ignorant, diseased, confulsed, and full of unwanted pregnancies than it is to think that maybe somewhere, some people are gay and doing just fine.

[NYdemocrat089]

21. I might be wrong

but haven't there been reports saying abstinence doesn't work either. I think there was a reference in Al Franken's book.

"Condoms are not working," said Walter Harders, an insurance agent who took a turn at the microphone. "Our children are getting pregnant, and they are getting sexually transmitted diseases, and it has to stop."

Edit: I just looked it up in Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them. Abstinence-only programs don't work. Texas, where Bushy funded abstinence-only programs, has the 46th wort teen pregnancy rate in the country.

[WindRavenX]

23. ****crazy quote alert*****

Ruth Jacobs, a physician from Rockville, said the curriculum "puts a lot of pressure on kids to figure out who they are, what they are. And they shouldn't be forced to do that."

Yeah, we don't want our kids to be thinking for themselves and trying to figure out WHO THEY ARE as a HUMAN BEING. Let's just all have lobotomies so we don't have to worry our "beautiful minds" on such dangerous things :eyes: :eyes: :eyes:
These people are FUCKED UP.

[msanthrope]

24. Awww, come on WindRaven...

We know what Dr. Jacobs is really saying:

"I'm scared my kid is going to figure out he's gay. It would be easier if he was out of the house and figured it out in college. Then I could tell myself that it wasn't my fault....."

[WindRavenX]

25. ayup

These idiots want our kids to live in ignorance, fear, and NOT know who they are as a HUMAN BEING.
Reading these quotes make me ill on so many leves...sexual identity is SO important to who you are as a person; being at peace with yourself in knowing yourself is key to being happy, IMHO.