Update July 2, 2007

We want to thank the many people who wrote to the Board of Education on sexuality education issue. The outpouring from the community most certainly had an impact. Below are the links to the articles in the Washington Post, Washington Times, Washington Blade and a video link to the local NBC coverage, describing what occurred.

The victory is significant for two reasons. First, the obvious reason: Now student will be able to get the most important question answered.

It is also significant because, in convincing the Superintendent and all but one Board member to take this step, the groundwork is laid for later improvements. It is clear that both Dr. Weast and some Board members were worried about litigation, but now it appears that the MCPS lawyers have assured him (and through him, the Board) that incorporating material from the major medical professional associations would not create any legal jeopardy.

Dr. Weast, in response to Steve Abrams' attack on him, was truly passionate in his defense of the added material. Pat O'Neill specifically spoke about taking a look at the experience at the end of the next school year and considering improvements.

It seems that the biggest frustration that the teachers and students had through the piloting was the strait-jacket in which teachers are placed by the requirement that they not say anything that is not in the curriculum. Perhaps a way forward would be to add to the single extra-curricular teacher resource approved yesterday basic documents from the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychological Association. Armed with essentially the universe of current information that possibly be used in just a couple of class periods, teachers really would be able to conduct useful discussions. That will not happen in the 2007-08 school year, but hopefully we can find ways to add it for the following school year. (Of course, it would also be an improvement if the teachers did not have to wait for questions about whether homosexuality is an illness to give the answer. But that, too, is now for another day.)

In today's Washington Post's Montgomery Extra Section, the Post solicits letters on the subject. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/20/AR2007062001203.html

Please write to the Post. The opposition certainly will be doing so.

Thank you, David Fishback, Board Member, Metro DC PFLAG

For more information, contact Metro DC PFLAG Board Member David Fishback at fishbackds@aol.com or 301-924-1791.