dcopeland@thestate.com
Lexington 3 leaders are debating whether an outside organization would help improve the district's sex education program or restrict its teachers.
Board members are considering a partnership with a S.C. parent organization to offer Worth the Wait, a program that teaches abstinence until marriage.
Some Lexington 3 school board members say the Worth the Wait program would offer students a complete sex education curriculum taught by well-trained teachers.
But administrators and a district committee are urging the board to make improvements to the existing program rather than turn the classrooms over to South Carolina Parents Involved in Education, the organization that coordinates the Worth the Wait program in the state.
The debate heated up at a board meeting earlier this month.
"My concern is that (the Worth the Wait program) doesn't support your program; it takes it over," superintendent Bill Gummerson told the board.
"If you need someone else to run the curriculum, you don't need me."
Board member Randy Fox said the district's curriculum is too teacher driven and lacks accountability because of teachers' flexibility to choose materials for their classes.
"If we do that and we have an influx of teachers, do we really know what's being taught?"
Board members could make a final decision about whether to approve the Worth the Wait program Feb. 12.
Meanwhile, Lexington 3 administrators are meeting with teachers and principals to compile a list of materials being used to teach sex education.
FOLLOWING A SCRIPT
Lexington 3 encourages teaching abstinence until marriage. Teachers can use supplemental materials, but the information must come from a state-approved list.
Worth the Wait, which would be funded through a federal Community-Based Abstinence Education grant, would stipulate that the district use the program as its sole sex education curriculum and commit to the program for at least three years.
The Texas-based program also trains teachers and offers workshops for parents and community members.
State S.C. Schools director Lynn Hammond said most teachers don't like having a script.
"That's not the way teachers who have their master's and bachelor's degrees usually work."
In 2005, S.C. Parents Involved members applied to the health education textbook review committee for Worth the Wait to be approved by the state. Reviewers, who are teachers and health practitioners, denied the program, but said it could be supplemental material.
Reviewers said the program used "inherently biased" gender roles and scare tactics to keep teens from having sex.
Sheri Few, president of the S.C. parent organization, said the group has made minor changes to bring Worth the Wait in line with state law.
She said despite the "backlash from the education department," districts can decide to use Worth the Wait if officials believe it reflects the community's values.
VARIETY OF VIEWS
At least six districts in the state have decided to use the Worth the Wait program.
In Dillon 2, Diane Finklea, comprehensive health coordinator, said the teacher training has given her teachers confidence in handling the sensitive subject.
"We've been very pleased with the program. Our teachers feel better prepared," she said.
In Lexington-Richland 5, teachers have used the program since the fall of 2006, coordinator Al Gates said.
Gates said in an e-mail that teachers use the Worth the Wait program as the main curriculum, but have found it necessary to use additional materials in the classroom. He said the program is "very prescriptive and devalues the expertise of the teacher."
The district has agreed to use the program through the end of the 2008-09 school year.
IS SYSTEM BROKEN?
Under state law, each school district must form a Comprehensive Health Education Committee, a 13-member group of parents, students, teachers, clergy and health officials, to review health material for topics including sex education, nutrition and hygiene.
Lexington 3's committee recommended the board keep the district's current curriculum and consider Worth the Wait as supplemental material.
The school board has discarded that recommendation.
Lexington 3 board vice chairman Ralph Kennedy said the board is not criticizing teachers for how they teach sex education.
"The board is charged by law with approving curriculum," he said. "Can we make it better? Can we teach a curriculum that's better than what we are teaching?"
Superintendent Gummerson said that the district's system is not broken and that board members have not told him what they think teachers are doing wrong in the classroom.
"If (it's) not being taught the way it needs to be in (the past) five years, no one spoke to me about concerns."
Reach Copeland at (803) 771-8485.