Sex ed program faces overhaul

Parents will now have to opt their children in to participate in the controversial middle-school sex education pilot program Pono Choices, which was reviewed for a second time amid complaints from some lawmakers, church groups and parents about it being medically inaccurate and inappropriate for students as young as 11 years old.

The move to an opt-in versus an opt-out decision is one of a dozen changes the Department of Education announced Friday with the release of a 24-page report by a working group convened in February to review the curriculum.

Pono Choices, billed as a "culturally responsive" program to help reduce teen pregnancies and prevent sexually transmitted infections, has been under fire since last year’s special session on gay marriage for classifying the anus as genitalia and including explicit lessons that allegedly minimize dangers associated with anal sex.

The program was developed and is owned by the University of Hawaii-Manoa’s Center on Disability Studies. It was taught to 11- to 13-year-olds in five public middle schools this past semester.

The working group’s report includes 11 recommendations to improve the curriculum and address public concerns. The Department of Education has formally requested that the university center use the recommendations to revise the curriculum before the 2014-15 school year.

The DOE says no schools will implement Pono Choices — previously one of seven DOE-approved programs for middle schools to use for sexual health education — until the department has received a revised version for review.

The review panel focused on 15 parts of the curriculum that were identified as controversial, including the teaching material’s definition of sex, anus, pono and abstinence; a condom demonstration; relationship scenarios that included same-sex couples; and images of sexual and reproductive anatomy parts.

The nine-member panel included the DOE’s deputy superintendent, a middle-school health teacher, a principal, a parent representative, a clinical professor of pediatrics and director of adolescent medicine at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, the state Department of Health’s adolescent health coordinator and representatives for the Hawaii Pastors Roundtable, Hui for Excellence in Education and Faith Action for Community Equality.

Some of the group’s recommendations include:

» Change the definition of sex — defined as oral, vaginal and anal sex — to no longer include the anus under the term genitals.

» Update the text in the parent-night materials to match the exact wording in the curriculum regarding the definition of sex and the actual language from relationship scenarios.

» Update a video — designed to help students develop refusal skills — to more clearly reinforce the abstinence message.

» Remove language from the teachers’ script that says male condoms have a 98 percent "perfect use effectiveness rate," which implies it’s almost 100 percent effective.

» Revisit the meaning and appropriate use of the word "pono" through a discussion with cultural experts.

State Rep. Bob McDermott (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point), a leader in the charge against Pono Choices and Hawaii’s same-sex marriage law, called some of the changes encouraging but said he’s still reviewing the full report.

"I am pleased that the parents received a partial victory," he said, "that the ludicrous concept of defining the anus as a genital has been recommended to do away with. The recommendation to be an opt-in is another win, along with disclosing the elevated risk of anal sex."

Garret Hashimoto, another Pono Choices opponent and president of the Hawaii Christian Coalition, said he was relieved to hear the program won’t be taught in schools until revisions are made.

"But I will keep on opposing the curriculum as long as it teaches graphic sex education to 11-year-olds," said Hashi­moto, who previously has said he would sue on behalf of concerned parents if the program wasn’t significantly amended. "Those teachings belong in the home with the parents."

Separate from the panel’s recommendations, the DOE issued a report listing 12 changes it’s making "to improve the curriculum review processes and increase parental role in decision-making around sexual health education."

In addition to the opt-in change, the department is asking the Board of Education to review its policies "to provide clarity around the context for classroom discussions about prophylactic devices," or contraceptives. Current policy prohibits the distribution of contraceptive devices in classrooms, on campuses and at school-related activities.

"Let’s not forget that the goal of this curriculum and our sexual health education standards, Board (of Education) policies, and state laws, is to reduce unintended teen pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV," schools Superintendent Kathryn Mata­yo­shi said in a statement.

"Given the statistics about Hawaii’s youth — the rate of sexual activity, failure to use protection, rate of pregnancy, and the spread of disease — we must work together to ensure students are educated to make better choices."

Nearly 36 percent of isle middle- and high-schoolers say they are sexually active, a drop from 37 percent in 2011 and 44.3 percent n 2009, according to a preview of the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The full results of the latest survey, performed every two years, will not be released until next week, but selected data were shared with the Board of Education last month.

Among Hawaii’s sexually active youth, 45.9 percent reported not using condoms during their last sexual intercourse, and 24 percent said they drank alcohol or used drugs before their last intercourse.