This book has been put together with the Office of Health Promotion and Planned Parenthood (though the g'ment underplays PP's actually role). This has been making quite a bit of news in NS lately. This school board is the only school board in the province that is against the book being distributed, yet they threaten to stop the book from being distributed anywhere.
Also, I'm sure Ms. Kehoe is
delighted for him after sharing with the world that his sexual knowledge is limited after 40 years of marriage.
Sex guide too racy - board chairman
By Mary Ellen MacIntyre / Staff Reporter
Giving students a sex education manual designed by the province's Office of Health Promotion would be nothing short of abuse, says the chairman of the Strait regional school board.
"Some people came to the board to give us the rationale behind this document and they wanted to distribute it to students in grades 7 to 12," George Kehoe said. "We were absolutely shocked by what was in it.
"It was frank, cold and told about every conceivable sexual act and it was described in detail.
"They told us they wanted to get the information out because there's too much teenage pregnancy. Well, my take is, there are too many unsupervised teenagers."
Board members voted 6-4 last week against allowing distribution of the booklet in the Strait school system.
Mr. Kehoe said there were things in the booklet he didn't know and he's been married 40 years.
"Our poor little kids should be allowed to grow up without having this information to deal with," he said.
One of the more objectionable parts of the information, he said, dealt with masturbation.
"Masturbation, alone or with a partner, was given as a low-risk activity," he said.
"This is something the parents should be looking at first, and if there's parents out there who want their kids to see these things, then they can give it to them."
Mr. Kehoe said he doesn't have any children left in school but he does have grandchildren.
"Giving that document to kids in Grade 7 is just plain abuse," he said. "If I had all that information when I was 14 years old, my life would've been frigged.
"You don't need to know those kinds of things - they'll learn it soon enough."
Although not all school boards in the province have reached a decision on whether to let the resource booklet into their schools, the Tri-County district school board voted to make sure it is distributed to students in that region.
Wendy Barnable, spokeswoman for the Office of Health Promotion, was saddened to hear of the Strait board's decision.
"We wanted to distribute the resource through the schools because that's where the teenagers are," she said.
"A recent large national study determined there is an alarming lack of knowledge in these age groups and we had hoped to get the information in their hands."
Ms. Barnable said the booklet, which is still in the design stage, gives frank and honest information.
"There are topics like the sexuality issue where the topic is handled in a responsible, mature manner without being preachy, and the topic of date rape and healthy relationships," she said.
As well, self-esteem and how it can relate to decisions about sexuality are discussed at some length, along with contraception and sexually transmitted infections.
"This resource is not meant to replace or supersede a parent's role," she said. "In fact, it would probably open the door for many parents to have discussions with their children."
Mr. Kehoe, meanwhile, figures there will be people who will criticize him.
"We're not a narrow-minded board," he said. "But there wasn't one person on the board who wasn't offended by something in that information."
