Sex Education Curriculum Debacle: The Gum Game

Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland introduced a new sex education curriculum this year, after a scandal last year caused it to scrap a brand new sex education curriculum that had yet to be implemented. This week, ihe new and improved sex education curriculum caused a public outcry. The cause? It's not condoms, sexual orientation, abortion or any of the typical "hot button" issues causing the latest brouhaha. It's chewing gum.

The Washington Post reported February 13 that Montgomery County Public Schools fired a contractor that had been providing abstinence speakers to the public schools. The contractor, Rockville Pregnancy Center, distributed chewing gum in an Einstein High School classroom last week, then encouraged the teens to chew gum previously chewed by their classmates. This was supposed to be a harmless and fun analogy to how peer pressure contributes to premarital sex and the spread of sexually transmitted disease. Most people think it's just plain gross and the school system's top health official has branded it unsanitary. Yet Rockville Pregnancy Center used this game in public and private schools in the area for nine years before it came to public attention.

A Montgomery County health education advocacy group, Teach the Facts, posted on its website, www.teachthefacts.org, a letter from the principal of the high school where the incident occurred. Einstein High School's principal stated that although the incident occurred on February 8, he did not learn of it until February 12 when Montgomery County public schools' central office brought it to his attention. In the letter, he said he was "appalled and aghast." He described the game as "inappropriate and unsanitary" and said "it should not have occurred."