Basin educators, reps concerned about potential curriculum changes

COLUMBIA BASIN — The next time students walk into a sex education class, it may be coordinated by the state rather than local school districts.

The proposed change, which would give sex education responsibilities to the Department of Health and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, was presented to the Legislature in January as a way to standardized sex education in public schools throughout Washington and to provide students with "medically accurate instruction and instructional materials," as section 2 of the engrossed substitute House bill 1282 reads.

In Washington state, public schools are not required to teach sex education but are required to teach an AIDS education program.

The new legislation would require all school districts to adopt guidelines recommended by the health department and the OSPI by Sept. 1, 2006.

This has some Legislative representatives concerned.

"This gives the department of health the authority to adopt rules to establish what constitutes a comprehensive sex health education curriculum," said Rep. Janea Holmquist, R-Moses Lake.

Holmquist, who voted against the bill, said the amount of time and money school districts spend on developing their own sex education curriculums would be null and void, leaving parents and local school boards with little input on the issue.

State Sen. Joyce Mulliken, R-Ephrata, and Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, agreed.

"I think our own parents and our school board ought to be guiding our sex education in schools," Mulliken said. "We already have public school sex ed programs that are more developed by the local school district with some state guidelines."

"Now the Department of Health is going to determine what's medically accurate and it's putting a lot of trust into one entity," said Hinkle, who believes many school districts would rather have the opportunity to teach programs that meet local needs and have local accountability.

Some educators in the Basin have varying reactions to the legislation.

Michelle Price, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction for the Moses Lake School District, said finding more time and resources is the challenge.

"We struggle just to get in the basics timewise," Price said. "If they have more resources for us, we can do it."

However, Health and Safety Coordinator for the Wahluke School District, Shelby Langdon, said she not only disagrees with the legislation, but doesn't believe it is the responsibility of school districts to teach sex education.

"I think this is something that should be addressed at home, but we're put in a position where kids need this because they're not getting it at home; we feel like it is our responsibility to pick it up," she said.

Some health teachers like Mandi Perez at Othello High School, agree there needs to be a change in sex education curriculum, but has reservations about the proposed legislation, prompting some districts to opt out of teaching it at all.

"I think the state is right, that we need more, but at the same time something is better than nothing," said Perez, who believes many students are making the decision to be sexually active without knowing about the repercussions of sexually transmitted diseases.

"I'm afraid there's kids falling through the cracks," she said.

House Bill 1282 passed in March with a 61-36 vote and is currently waiting further discussion in the Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee.