MCPS to teach condom usage

MCPS will allow health teachers to demonstrate proper condom use through a ten-minute video to be piloted in five undetermined county high schools next year. The county is also developing curriculum changes to permit discussions on homosexuality and other sexual variants.

The Montgomery County Board of Education (BOE) voted 4-1 on Nov 12 to change the current sex education policy, which prevents teachers from demonstrating condom use or initiating discussions about homosexuality. The issue was raised by a recommendation from the Citizens Advisory Committee on Family Life and Human Development.

The committee's proposal to approve of condom demonstrations was spurred partly by Blair health teacher Susan Soulé, who testified before the committee that health teachers should be allowed to "demonstrate the correct use of latex condoms as a preventative measure against the spread of sexually transmitted diseases."

The instructional video will teach proper condom use through a demonstration performed over two fingers, said Soulé.

Soulé believes the county's new ruling is "a step forward" and is in keeping with the other preventative measures taught in tenth-grade health classes. "It's progressive," she said. "We have a public health issue that needs to be addressed because of the high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases among teens."

Russell Henke, the MCPS coordinator of health education, said that teachers, counselors and others who work closely with students supported the changes in response to student demand. "If students say they need more information about condoms and more information about sex in the curriculum, it's important for us to listen," Henke said.

Students will need parental permission to receive instruction on condom use and homosexuality, putting the two subjects in the same category as childbirth, contraception and premarital intercourse. Students whose parents do not allow them to participate will receive alternate instruction.

Henke called the curriculum changes "controversial" in a Nov 13 article in the Gazette, saying that the curriculum changes cover "some things that people were uncomfortable with."

Howard and Prince George's counties and the City of Baltimore currently present condom use demonstrations as part of the health curriculum. According to Lawrence Jacobs, the Citizen's Advisory Committee chairman, the State of Maryland has allowed condom use demonstrations for the last 30 years, and the MCPS health curriculum has contained some information about condom use during that same period.

Current County regulations state that students who wish to learn condom use can go to the school nurse and request a demonstration over two fingers.