A sex education video and two pamphlets requested by health teachers were rejected yesterday by the Carroll County Board of Education.
The materials had been approved by a parent screening panel that includes teachers and a member of the local clergy. But school board members said the video and pamphlets did not emphasize abstinence.
The board voted 3-1 not to use the video "Chances, Choices, Changes," proposed for 10th-graders. The documentary shows three teen mothers, including a 14-year-old who watches her friends try out for the tennis team, as she had wanted to do.
Board member Ann M. Ballard defended the video, which she said was powerful and well done.
"The video showed her standing at the fence, and her friends were playing tennis while she was standing there with the baby on her hip, rocking him and putting in the pacifier," Ballard said. "If that doesn't teach abstinence "
She said the video was in color, but switched to black-and-white as it depicted the sometimes bleak or stressful scenes of the mothers taking care of their babies.
"The video is very powerful," said board President Joseph Mish. "If there was nothing else available, I'd say use it. But I'm going to vote against it. The message in it is 'If I only practiced safe sex.' The presumption is kids are going to have sex."
Ballard did join three board members (Carolyn Scott was absent) in a unanimous vote against two Planned Parenthood pamphlets: "Ten Ridiculous Ideas That Will Make a Mother" and "Ten Ridiculous Ideas That Will Make a Father."
Member C. Scott Stone objected to the pamphlets, saying they tell teens that confidential help and information is available to them without their parents knowing. The
pamphlets also presume sexual activity, he said. For example, the pamphlet for boys says to always assume your girlfriend is not using birth control.
"There's a presumption of the sex act," Stone said.
Ballard said she voted against the pamphlets because she thought they were too strong for middle school. The pamphlets were proposed for seventh grade.
Mish said he was less concerned about the pamphlets, because they are not as powerful as a video, but he supported Stone's concerns.
In 1988, the board approved a policy to emphasize abstinence. But the policy, in accordance with state law, also acknowledges that some students will have sex and that schools have an obligation to provide information on preventing pregnancy and disease.
