SIMI VALLEY : Sex Education Curriculum Rejected

The Simi Valley school board has sent a proposed sex education curriculum back to the drawing board because parts of it were deemed inappropriate, Supt. Mary Beth Wolford said.

Wolford, who declined to give specifics on what the panel found inappropriate, made the announcement late Tuesday after a group of conservative parents told the board that the new curriculum should not include references to homosexuality or any sexual acts.

Parents criticized the board, saying it allowed a committee of nurses and teachers to stray from guidelines developed earlier this year. The committee was formed to select materials for use in seventh- and 10th-grade courses on sex education.

Parent Kathy Burke singled out sections in the recommended literature that mention homosexuality, masturbation and oral sex, which she said were not supposed to be included in the curriculum.

Coleen Ary, chairwoman of the conservative Citizens for Truth in Education, also criticized the materials for not being abstinence-based. “Children will be left to their own designs to determine right and wrong for themselves,” she said.