Critics of the state’s controversial middle-school sex education pilot program, Pono Choices, expressed concern Monday that a working group convened to study the material has been meeting in secret and comprises members who might not deliver a fair and unbiased report.
Pono Choices, billed as a "culturally responsive" teen pregnancy and disease prevention program, 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.
State Rep. Bob McDermott (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point), who has been a leader in the charge against Pono Choices and Hawaii’s same-sex marriage law, held a news conference Monday to address his latest concern.
"There’s no public meetings," he said. "They’ve met several times. I am told they all had to sign nondisclosure agreements. … We’ve heard nothing."
The group can hold closed-door meetings because is it not a government agency, said Donalyn Dela Cruz, spokeswoman for the Department of Education. Dela Cruz also dispelled the notion that members were asked to sign any forms.
"Being transparent does not mean that the working group’s meetings need to be filmed or made public for everyone to hear," she said.
The DOE briefly halted the program — currently being taught to 11- to 13-year-olds in 12 public middle schools — for two weeks last year before reinstating it in December after a department review deemed it medically accurate and aligned with state law and DOE policy. The department then convened a working group Feb. 20 to further evaluate the program.
"Any action that has been made by the Department of Education regarding concerns about the Pono Choices curriculum has been made public," Dela Cruz said in an email. "It is unfortunate that the work that these community members have done on behalf of addressing in large part Rep. McDermott’s concerns" is characterized as being done in secret.
Garret Hashimoto, president of the Hawaii Christian Coalition, also held a news conference Monday at the Capitol to cite concerns regarding the Pono Choices review.
Hashimoto said the composition of the group indicates "the deck is stacked," and that he’s prepared to sue on behalf of concerned parents if the program doesn’t emerge from the working group significantly amended.
"We’re that fired up," he said. "If one child gets harmed (emotionally, physically or psychologically) through Pono Choices or through what’s going on with this, I mean, there’s going to be a big lawsuit."
Dela Cruz said the working group has met three times and is finalizing a report that will be made public once it’s completed.
A list of the eight working group members can be found at www.hawaiipublicschools.org/ConnectWithUs/MediaRoom/PressReleases/Pages/DOE-convenes-working-group-to-review-Pono-Choices.aspx.
