WASHINGTON: Spokane Schools Approve Updated Sex-Ed Materials

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

WASHINGTON: Spokane Schools Approve Updated Sex-Ed Materials

Spokesman-Review (Spokane) (12.06.05) - Thursday, December 15, 2005
Rob McDonald

After months of discussion among administrators and a committee of citizens and students, the Spokane Public Schools board of directors recently approved new sex education videos and other materials.

Produced by a division of the Discovery Channel, the videos, with titles like "Deadly Desires" and "Sexual Pressure," will be shown beginning next month as part of the district's health and life skills classes. In one scene, a video shows teenagers suggestively "booty dancing," while another shows a gyrating woman in a music video singing "Give it to me baby." The goal of these scenes is to build credibility among teens who have for years been exposed to intensely sexual images they may feel pressured to emulate.

While the videos take a documentary approach, the pamphlets are mostly clinical and information-based. A pamphlet produced by the American Social Health Association on correct condom use was considered too graphic by some, according to minutes from citizen committee meetings. However, the pamphlet passed the committee and the school board for use in ninth-grade health classes. A magazine titled "Who Knew? The Abstinence Issue" was perceived as too juvenile by some seventh-graders.

The newly approved materials will cost the district as much as $2,000. "It's an important subject for the health and safety of youngsters" said Scott Stowell, a district curriculum coordinator for science, health and human growth and development.
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