Ban Agency, 2 Groups From Workshops, Education Official Says

Resurrecting a plan to limit what Ventura County teachers are taught about sex education, the county Board of Education is again considering a ban on speakers from Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care at workshops for educators.

But this time, board President Wendy Larner also wants to exclude representatives of the Public Health Department.

Larner accused the three groups of violating the spirit of state laws covering sex education and sex between minors in their presentations to teachers.

And she has asked that they be suspended from participating in county-sponsored workshops until their programs and written agreements with the Board of Education are reviewed.

“With the kinds of materials and approaches they take to teen sexuality, I would say they have an inappropriate message for schools to impose,” she said. “When they claim they have an abstinence-based approach, that really is very, very misleading.”

Moreover, Larner said, the groups “contribute to the delinquency of minors” by giving teachers information about contraceptives and the transmission of AIDS that is not required by state law.

Larner first sparked controversy last month when she suggested that Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care be dropped from the workshop, but the board decided to study the issue further after teachers and members of the public attacked the proposal.

Representatives of Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care who blasted the original proposal, sharply criticized Larner’s plan again Wednesday, saying it will ultimately harm students. Both groups said their speakers are trained to follow the state-mandated curriculum.

“If these people want to bet that their kids are not having sex, they’d better be willing to bet their children’s lives on that,” said Doug Green, executive director of AIDS Care, an advocacy group.

“I’m outraged that they would want to restrict the flow of information that could save kids’ lives,” he said.

Terri Thorfinnson, a spokeswoman for the tri-county region of Planned Parenthood, said she believes Larner’s proposal is being propelled by a conservative Christian movement that has gained influence on school boards throughout the county.

She cited an attempt by the Hemet Unified School District last fall to adopt programs that preach abstinence from premarital sex and avoid mention of contraception. Rather than fight a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood, the district voted recently to drop sex education altogether.

“This is part of the radical right agenda,” Thorfinnson said, referring to Larner’s proposal, “ . . . to impose their morality and beliefs on society and make it become part of school policy.”

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Larner rejected Thorfinnson’s comments, saying that parents, rather than schools, should be responsible for teaching their children about sex.

In turn, she accused Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care of presenting their own agenda.

Larner did acknowledge that her views have gained support since November, when Mary Bates and Angela N. Miller were elected with the backing of conservative Christian organizations. Larner received similar support when she was elected two years ago.

“The issue has come back . . . because the complexion of the board has changed,” she said.

She said groups such as Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care represent other viewpoints by their work in the community, even if they adhered to the board’s guidelines.

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Larner said she has added public health workers to the list because they work with the other groups in planning training sessions.

But Eileen Gordon, director of education for the health department, said she was surprised that her department had been targeted.

“It’s hard for me to respond until I know what the problem is,” she said.

Larner said she first became concerned about the content of the teachers’ workshops in 1992 after listening to a young man infected with AIDS talk about having sex without telling his partners of his medical status.

“His attitude was not one that promoted sexuality within the framework of marriage,” Larner said.

“It was very clear the whole nature of the workshop was to show teachers that they had a responsibility to give contraceptive information,” she said.

Larner said she would like workshops sponsored by the district to strongly emphasize abstinence, mentioning condoms only in the context of their failure rates. Other methods of birth control, she said, should not be taught.

In addition, she said, speakers should emphasize that sex between unmarried minors is illegal.

Trustee John McGarry said he wants to know how superintendents throughout the county view sex education and AIDS awareness training for teachers before taking a position on Larner’s proposal.

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McGarry said he believes AIDS Care and Planned Parenthood may cloud the training workshops with political messages, but that students need to be taught about AIDS.

“It’s what? The greatest killer of people between the ages of 20 and 40 right now?” he said. “If that’s true, it seems paramount that we’re giving instruction to students in school about AIDS and how it can be obtained.”

Bates and Miller could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The county Board of Education acts as a resource for individual districts, organizing training workshops on a variety of subjects.

AIDS Care, Planned Parenthood and the health department, along with other agencies, form the Family Life Committee, which has organized teachers’ workshops for several years.

The board is scheduled to discuss and vote on Larner’s proposal Monday night. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the Administrative Services Center at 5189 Verdugo Way in Camarillo.