UPDATE

School board saves sex ed

By Noah Bruce

Portland’s School Committee voted unanimously to save sex ed at its meeting May 16. Facing a sharp budget cut, superintendent of Portland schools Mary O’ Connor slated two of the three teachers from the innovative program for the chopping block (see http://www.portlandphoenix.com/archive/features/01/05/18/feat_sexed.html), but the School Committee agreed with a vocal group of citizens who spoke out at the meeting against the cut.

“[O’ Connor] meets with her staff, her financial people and educational people,” says Kim Matthews explaining the budgetary process. “They tried to look at programs that would be least harmful to the kids to cut. That was one of them, but several school board members thought that wasn’t a good place to cut, but she did.”

The sex-ed program, officially called Family Living and Human Sexuality, is an abstinence-based program that last year won a state-wide award from the Maine Family Planning Office as a program of excellence. The program works to educate students to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, abuse, and teenage pregnancy. Homosexual students at the meeting testified that the program had made life easier for them by educating their peers about gay issues. Perhaps the most stirring argument for preserving the program was sex educator Chuck Morrison’s statistic that 30 students a year reveal a history of abuse to the educators who then ensure that the students receive the help they need.

Committee member Michelle Hedrich says saving sex ed was her highest priority a because “it’s a safety issue. What I said was ‘our students are learning for the future.’ Even if it’s one child’s future that we’re saving, there’s not going to be learning if they’re dealing with teenage pregnancy, or AIDS, or an STD. Things like these can dramatically alter the course of their lives. It’s difficult to talk about where their learning is taking them, if they’re not safe.”

The committee voted to cut some funds to the Portland Partnership group, a program that lobbies local businesses to contribute to the schools; teacher positions necessary to institute all-day school for all Portland kindergarteners (each elementary school will have at least one all-day kindergarten class); textbook funds; and because it managed to avoid laying off any active employees, the committee cut a line item designated for unemployment benefits.

Matthews does not think sex ed will be in danger if the School Committee is again forced to make cuts next year. “I’d be surprised if it came up again. There was pretty strong sentiment on the School Committee and in the public not to cut sex ed.”