
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 26, 1994                   TAG: 9402250034
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RETREAT IN RICHMOND?

A RETROGRESSIVE movement is afoot in Richmond. Parents and some conservative legislators who are opposed to sex education in the public schoolsare pushing Gov. George Allen to undo sex education in the public schools. They want him either to repeal the 1987 law requiring localities to have a family-life education curriculum, or to use his executive muscle to overturn the state education department's requirements for the program.

Allen should not only "just say no" to the sex-education foes. He should also do everything in his power to f+istrengtheno family-life education.in the public schools.

Many sex-education opponents unrealistically believe that if sex is banned as a classroom topic, youngsters will no longer be interested in sex and that promiscuous sexual activity, sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy will cease.to be problems in society.

That's a heads-in-the-sand attitude.Maybe in Mayberry RFD. Not in contemporary America.

Adolescents today are bombarded with information about sex - from television, videos, movies, magazines, advertisements. Or should we say misoinformation. (One study of prime-time television counted 9,000 scenes of suggested sexual intercourse in one year's time.) The message they're getting from sources outside the schoolsis that sexual activity is all fun and games, self-centered and completely rewarding, hand is accompanied by no risks whatsoever of pregnancy or AIDS.

Sex-education programs are necessary to counter that message, to provide a sexual-reality check, to help promote age-appropriate sexual behavior. Such programs are especially necessary when evidence is strong that many children aren't getting any of this from their parents.

To be sure, more parental involvement in the sex education of adolescents is desirable. To that end, parents need to assert themselves at the local level. Rather than tomuzzle teachers, the aim of parental involvement should be to improve the quality of sex education.

Instead of lobbying Allen to do away with the family-life curriculum, parents should be enlisting his support to make it more effective.

by CNB