Helena, Mont., Mulls Kindergarten Sex Ed

Helena, Mont., Mulls Kindergarten Sex Ed
July 14, 2010 - 6:45 AM | by: Alicia Acuna
The Helena Public Schools Board of trustees faced a large and emotionally charged crowd at its meeting Tuesday night as it considers whether to begin its sexual education curriculum in kindergarten.

Members of the community were invited to give public comment on the proposed K-12 Health Enhancement Comprehensive Curriculum before the nine-member board votes next month.

Click here to view the proposed curriculum.

The Montana Family Foundation is fighting the proposed changes, telling Fox News its biggest concern is teaching graphic sexual detail to kids who are not emotionally able to process or comprehend it. If the changes pass, kids as young as 5 will begin to learn medically accurate names for a number of both male and female "private parts."

According to the draft proposal, beginning in kindergarten, school nurses will teach students proper terms such as "nipple, breast, penis, scrotum and uterus." And once they are promoted to first grade, children will learn that sexual relations could happen between two men or two women. By the time students are 10 years old, instruction will include the various ways people can have intercourse, be it vaginally, orally or through "anal penetration," according to the proposal.

When the plan was announced in June it hit like a shock wave to this city of 29,000 people.

"As educators and as parents and as communities we need to be more proactive in helping inform our students at an appropriate age what the risk factors are associated with their own behaviors so that they can make better decisions about their well-being," Dr. Bruce Messinger, the Superintendent of Helena Public Schools, told Fox News.

Jeff Laszloffy of the Montana Family Foundation disagreed, saying: "The problem is they think it would be age appropriate to teach different sexual positions and different sexual variations to ten-year-olds"

A similar measure failed in the Montana legislature last year.

Messinger said parents will be able to have their kids opt-out, but Laszloffy said teachers want to have the same option.

"I think the reason it is such a concern is it tramples parental rights, it places government squarely between parents and their children," Laszloffy said.

Dr. Messinger said that this is a work in progress and that the final version, if and when it passes, will take two to three years to implement.



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