Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 29, 1993 TAG: 9303290045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Mike Long, consultant to a group that markets abstinence textbooks and teaching materials, can expect a frigid reception from at least one member of the audience at the Roanoke County Administration Building.
"This program is straight out of the religious right," said Kathryn Haynie, executive director of Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge, which covers the area west of Richmond.
Haynie said she objects to a move to include the materials Long promotes in Roanoke County schools because they rely on fear, sexual stereotypes and religious morality to discourage teen-agers from having sex.
"The objection is not to promoting abstinence," she said. "Everyone agrees that abstinence is the very best idea for young people. But there are very good programs out there that teach abstinence and this is not one of them."
Not according to Karen Scott.
The Bent Mountain parent of five has been using the materials provided by "Project Respect" in an informal abstinence course she teaches to children in a church basement.
She says the two books, "Sex Respect" and "Facing Reality," don't contain a religious message but do include positive, forceful messages that teach children how to protect themselves from sexual urges and aggression.
"It ends up being a positive peer pressure thing," Scott said.
She feels so strongly about the materials that she organized a group of parents to raise Long's $675 speaking fee. About 20 parents have donated $465 toward tonight's two-hour event, which begins at 7.
But others have equally strong feelings against the program, including a district court judge who banned the materials from a Louisiana school system March 18. Judge Frank H. Thaxton found the books contained religious beliefs and misleading information. Court cases against school systems using the materials are pending in several other states.
The books are used in 2,000 school systems nationwide.
Roanoke County schools already use some of the materials provided by "Project Respect," Director of Instruction Garland Life said. The entire program is not used because a committee of community leaders and educators rejected some of it when the Family Life curriculum was reviewed in 1988.
"The total package was not endorsed but a few parts of it are involved," he said.
Scott said she would like to see more of it used.
"They are teaching this but it's so spread out and diluted that the kids aren't getting a real strong message," she said.
She invited Long to speak, and parents and educators from Botetourt to Blacksburg to listen, in the hope of persuading school systems to accept the whole program.
Her hopes likelyf will be dashed in Roanoke County.
"At the present time, I do not see where there's a need to change anything," Life said.
by CNB