Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 10, 1995 TAG: 9511100074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press FAIRFAX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``Sex, Lies and the Truth'' perpetuates the myth of black sexual promiscuity and implies that only minorities have to worry about the consequences of sexual activity, its critics said.
The tape has been shown to ninth-grade health education students to promote sexual abstinence since 1993.
School Board member Ralph Miles said the tape ``relied on racial stereotypes and demeaned minorities.'' At a board meeting last month, Miles also said the tape contained medical misinformation.
The 30-minute video has been a focus of contention in the board's long-running and often bitter debate over whether the system's Family Life Education program focuses enough on abstinence as the only way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
The School Board voted in March to replace the video because of complaints from black parents and others.
Conservative parents strongly defended the videotape, and in July, the board compromised and voted to let teachers decide whether to show the tape.
Now, under pressure from Miles, the board has scheduled a vote Tuesday on whether to eliminate the video altogether.
Miles is particularly critical of a scene in the video that shows a black girl laughing while she explains that she is a single mother and her boyfriend is in jail. Two more black girls giggle in the background in the scene.
Miles said the girls give the impression that ``teen-age parenthood is not taken seriously by young African- Americans.''
The video was produced by Focus on the Family, a Colorado Springs-based conservative Christian group. Focus on the Family sells the tape to school systems around the country.
Miles probably will get support. Board Vice Chairman Louis J. Zone said the video does not appeal to most children in suburban Fairfax.
by CNB