Bay Windows - November 13, 2003
Ethan Jacobs,ejacobs@baywindows.com.

But for many districts, school health classes also provided valuable information for GLBT students. Most health classes covered safer sex, and a number of districts around the state also discussed gay and lesbian identity and encouraged tolerance for GLBT people. As a result of the state's shrinking budget, the future of school health classes, like the Safe Schools Program, is in jeopardy.

Carol Goodenow, director of the Coordinated School Health Program in the state Department of Education (DOE), said that at this point the state does not know how many schools are still offering health classes or what they are teaching. In July 2002, she said, the DOE lost its $24 million marked for the Health Protection Fund. DOE used this money to fund health classes for schools around the state, and the funding allowed the state to maintain a certain degree of oversight.

The state will not know the full impact of the loss of the Health Protection Fund until sometime in the spring of next year. Goodenow explained that the DOE surveys state school health programs every two years to measure their work around HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention, and the previous survey was done in spring 2002, before the loss of state health funding.

"We aren't quite sure how bad it's been for this year," Goodenow explained. She suspects that some districts may have found other sources of funding for the 2002-2003 school year, but she said that without state health funding for the second year in a row she suspects that many districts have either fired their health teachers or greatly reduced their work hours.

At the state level the DOE has had policies in place since the early 1990s recommending (but not mandating) that schools target high risk students, including sexual minority students. The DOE also recommended a comprehensive approach to sexuality education, including promotion of abstinence and discussion of safer sex.

"Massachusetts is a local control state, so each district decides on its own what it's going to include [in sexuality education]," Goodenow explained. Yet according to the spring 2002 DOE survey most schools were following the state's recommendations, at least around issues of safer sex.

The survey shows that 93 percent of school districts offered required health classes as of spring 2002. Of these schools, well over 90 percent discussed how HIV is transmitted and its effects on the body. Indicative of a general unease around discussions of sexuality in schools, only about half of the health classes taught students how to correctly use a condom. The survey does not ask about discussion of GLBT issues, so the state does not know how many schools covered the topic either before or after the loss of the Health Protection Fund money.

Even for schools that have managed to salvage their health curriculum, Goodenow said there may be fewer hours each week devoted to health classes due to cutbacks, ensuring that the curriculum gets compressed.

"If you have one 45 minute period to deal with HIV and sexuality, you're not going to get too deep in it," she said.

Some schools have been able to maintain their school health programs, although not without struggle. In Needham voters passed a budget override, raising taxes to replace the lost state funds. Kathy Pinkham, director of health and physical education at Needham High School, said that the health department has instead lost class time as a result of the increasing time spent preparing students for mandatory MCAS testing. Currently every Needham High School student takes one semester of health classes as part of the school's Wellness Curriculum.

In terms of gay and lesbian issues, Pinkham says that in her ten years at the school same-sex relationships have almost always been part of the general health class discussion.

"At the high school level [same-sex relationships are] brought up in the context of healthy relationships. Prior to high school they're brought up in the context of healthy relationships and different definitions of family," said Pinkham. She said that in each context the teachers explain that both different-sex and same-sex relationships can be healthy.

Pinkham said Needham teachers hope to do more around sexual orientation issues, and they are meeting this month to discuss ways to expand that part of the curriculum. She said over time students have grown comfortable discussing gay and lesbian issues in schools, and the school has not received complaints about their curriculum. As with all Massachusetts public schools, Needham allows parents to take their children out of class on days dealing with sexuality, and as in most schools the number of parents who exercise this right is relatively small.

Pinkham said Needham also teaches comprehensive lessons on HIV prevention.

"The fear that we have is that kids are becoming complacent about HIV and AIDS," she said. "We try to bring them up to date on the myths and realities [of the disease]."

Students do role-play exercises, acting out scenarios in which they might be under pressure to have unprotected sex and learning how to make safe choices. Pinkham said they also discuss a number of topics including condom use.

According to Nancy DiMella, curriculum specialist for Newton Public Schools, Newton has also maintained its health classes and their GLBT content, but not without difficulty. Due to budget cuts DiMella's own role as health coordinator was eliminated, and the health and physical education programs were merged into a single department.

Formal sexuality education in Newton begins in sixth grade and includes some lessons on HIV transmission, but the core of the curriculum takes place in ninth grade during a semester-long course called Sexuality and Health.

DiMella said some of the lessons in the ninth grade course encourage tolerance for gay and lesbian people, in line with the school's overall efforts to encourage tolerance for different kinds of people.

"Newton has addressed issues of discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender kids for a long time...," said DiMella. "I think that it's a generally accepted part of the core values that the kids have grown up with."

She said students watch videos about gay and lesbian high school students and talk about the impact of homophobia on gay and lesbian youth.

Like Needham, Newton also has comprehensive education around safer sex and STDs, but DiMella said that since the curriculum was put in place between 1993 and 1994 a small but vocal group of community members has actively campaigned against it. Yet DiMella said that despite opposition and loss of state funding, the basic message of the health curriculum has become institutionalized in Newton.

In contrast, Donna Ruseckas, physical education and health coordinator for Watertown High School, said that her school covers safer sex and HIV prevention, but there is no specific lesson plan dealing with gay and lesbian issues.

"We just maybe cover that topic, but not to any real extent," she said. Teachers tell students what homosexuality is, and they tell students that same-sex relationships can be as healthy as different-sex relationships. She also stressed that health teachers discuss safer sex in gender neutral terms to be inclusive of gay and lesbian students.

Goodenow explained that beyond budget cuts, another factor impacting the ability of schools to discuss GLBT issues and safer sex is federal funding for abstinence-only education. Since the passage of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, states have received money to conduct abstinence-only education, and Goodenow said this money often restricts what public schools can teach in their health classes.

Bill Smith, director of public policy for the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), a group advocating for comprehensive sexuality education, said that Massachusetts "needs to be applauded" for preventing abstinence-only money from the Welfare Reform Act from impacting school health classes. When schools use the money, they are forbidden from discussing condom use and pregnancy prevention, and they must teach that abstinence until marriage is the only safe way to ensure sexual health. This message necessarily avoids the question of same-sex sexuality entirely.

Massachusetts uses the funds for a media campaign that promotes abstinence, but it stresses self-respect and communication with parents. Smith said the campaign also remains gender neutral and avoids talk of marriage to remain inclusive of gay and lesbian youth. According to Smith, the decision to fund a media campaign rather than curricula in schools allows health classes to continue offering comprehensive sexuality education.

Yet Smith said a second stream of federal funding, which provides money to community-based organizations to conduct abstinence-only education, is having an impact on state public schools. He explained that as schools lose state funding, groups receiving the federal funding pick up the slack and offer schools fully-funded abstinence-only health programs. SIECUS is not aware of any Mass. schools that have adopted an abstinence-only approach in their health classes, but some schools have invited groups in to lead abstinence-only workshops.

"These programs, they are almost silent on gay and lesbian relationships. Period," said Smith.

The rise in abstinence-only education is coupled with what many sources see as an increasingly conservative political climate in the state, especially around issues of sexuality and GLBT issues. Several educators, public officials, and youth advocates contacted were hesitant or unwilling to speak on the record about sexuality education for fear that their comments would stir up controversy from community groups opposed to any discussion of sexuality in schools.

Goodenow said that while nearly all health classes in the state stress the need for abstinence, in the long run the most effective courses also teach about HIV and STD prevention, safer sex, and pregnancy prevention.

"I think almost anybody in a standard health class says that abstinence is a good thing," said Goodenow. "... All of the evidence is the evaluated curriculum that have been shown to reduce risk behavior... have more comprehensive approaches."

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