An Abstinence Debate to Chew On

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Regarding the Feb. 10 front-page article "Students Get Lessons to Chew On":

My daughter attended the same Rockville Pregnancy Center lecture given in Montgomery County schools at the McLean Presbyterian Church nine years ago, and it was a success in this young girl's life. She is now a senior in college, and she remembers that talk to this day. It helped her get through high school and college feeling encouraged that abstinence was the best way to protect her body and her heart until she was ready to commit to marriage.

Please don't stop these lectures; they provide such a great springboard for communication between parents and children. The concept is life-changing and gives kids encouragement during a mixed-up time of life.

PATTY WEBBER

Great Falls

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So it took a disgusting gum-sharing exercise for Montgomery County Public Schools to realize that the Rockville Pregnancy Center has no business in its health education classes?

Even if there is no overt religious content in the center's school presentations, such organizations routinely present disinformation in the service of promoting their socially conservative moral agendas. They try to instill doubt about the effectiveness of condoms in preventing sexually transmitted disease and of oral contraceptives in preventing unwanted pregnancy. And they greatly exaggerate the medical and psychological risks of legal abortion.

Public schools must ensure that students receive accurate, scientifically based information to help them navigate the complicated issues of human sexuality.

VICTORIA BALENGER

Bethesda

We at Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum agree with Deputy Superintendent Frieda Lacey that gum-sharing exercises in Montgomery County public schools are "repulsive."

We also are concerned that students learn about sexually transmitted diseases. So how does Ms. Lacey feel about a curriculum that refuses to find anal sex "repulsive" or dangerous, but instead recommends that kids visit organizations that promote such sexual contact, and worse?

Last week our organization asked the State Board of Education to halt testing of the revised sex-ed curriculum. One reason for doing so was the failure of the new curriculum to address objectively the government-confirmed health risks of anal sex and other practices that spread sexually transmitted diseases.

So what's "repulsive" and requiring "immediate

review" is all in the eye of the beholder, right? Unless you are a teenager who has just found out he or she is HIV-positive.

MICHELLE TURNER

Spokesperson

Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum

Damascus

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The Feb. 13 Metro article "Gum Sharing Exercise Was Used for Nine Years" stated that the activity presented a low risk of transmitting germs.

But a news story in the same day's A section ["Among Chinese, Fear and Prejudice About Hepatitis B"] stated that this virus may be transmitted though saliva.

In view of such a possibility (and perhaps others not mentioned), it would seem reasonable to bar such exercises as the sharing of gum.

IRWIN RUFF

Rockville