Church fights school district plan on sex ed

By RICHARD KOE
     MEDFORD – Nearly 1,000 members of Applegate Christian Fellowship, the largest church in Oregon’s Rogue Valley, have signed a petition opposing plans by the Medford School Board to introduce contraception information in eighth-grade health classes.
     Peter John Courson, senior pastor of the 5,000-member church, has spoken out against providing a contraception lesson in the Medford schools. He threatened to remove his two daughters, now in pre-school, from the public school system and urged his congregation to do the same if the school board agrees to the new curriculum.
     School board members have also received about 60 e-mail comments, some in favor and some opposed, and some with questions, Phil Long, superintendent of the Medford School District, told the Medford Mail Tribune. The board may make its decision this month.
     A district committee of health teachers and others spent 18 months evaluating health curriculum to find a science-based program that matches state law, new state curriculum standards adopted last February, the needs of parents, and the behaviors of students.
    This is the first time since 1991 that the school district has upgraded its curriculum for secondary students. Long has pledged to provide details on what the five sex education lessons in eighth-grade curriculum would look like.
    At a meeting last month before concerned community leaders, board members asked for specific details about the lessons eighth-grade students would get on contraceptives as well as possible alternative lessons for children whose parents opt out of that section of health education.
    A policy also will be proposed to determine who is invited to speak to health classes, and guidelines for such speakers as well as options for alternative lessons. Long said all aspects will be open to parent involvement.
    Many people uneasy with the proposal asked for an opt-in approach that would enable parents to sign their kids up for sex education if they thought it would be appropriate, rather than making students attend unless their parents opted out.