Gwinnett County school officials haven’t said much publicly about sex education since controversy over the topic delayed the adoption of a new health curriculum last month, but Georgia School Superintendent Richard Woods has weighed in a second time with concerns about the district’s proposal.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained two recent letters from Woods to the school board and superintendent that echoed issues raised by critics of the proposed new curriculum.
“I believe there have been missed opportunities for transparency, responsiveness, and buy-in throughout this process,” Woods wrote in an April 6 letter. “The board’s recent action doesn’t just provide a moment to pause, but an opportunity to restart a jeopardized process.”
The school board is slated to pick up discussions about the sex and health curriculum at its meeting next week.
It’s considering a switch to HealthSmart, a set of health textbooks and other resources with a sex education component that is considered comprehensive. Supporters have said the change is best for students, teaching risk reduction strategies while being more inclusive and realistic about decisions that teenagers make.
Opponents have said the curriculum does not adequately promote abstinence. They believe Gwinnett should stick with Choosing the Best, the same sex ed program it’s used for 22 years.
A restart may involve another round of assessing resources and conducting surveys, which have been a key factor in criticism of the district-recommended HealthSmart because more than 90% of participants advised rejecting it. However, an AJC review of survey results obtained through a records request found it may be difficult to draw firm conclusions from them.
While it’s clear the vast majority of the roughly 600 responses in each of three separate surveys didn’t approve of HealthSmart, there was no way to ensure participants live in the county. About 42% of participants self-identified as Gwinnett residents as opposed to someone with a current connection to the district, such as a parent, student or school employee. People who identified themselves as parents accounted for just over 50%.
Also, there was no way to prevent taking the survey more than once — some responses noted doing just that, and some results show identical written responses appearing in sequence.
Board member Mary Kay Murphy has called for the process to start over with a better attempt at drawing participation. “The parents who have contacted me let me know that the publication (of the survey was) not clear, and parents have felt greatly left out,” she said.
Tasha Guadalupe, Gwinnett’s director of health and physical education, said there is a time crunch with adopting a new curriculum. If it isn’t done with enough time to purchase and implement the new curriculum by the start of next school year, district staff will have to purchase or create piecemeal supplements about human trafficking, suicide awareness and other topics, she said.
Woods said in a March 14 letter that Choosing the Best has lessons on abstinence better aligned with state requirements for sex education. In both letters, he says HealthSmart goes beyond the state requirements, indicating the standards should be considered a limit rather than the minimum.
Woods also points out HealthSmart aligns lessons with the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning and said those standards are not part of approved health education in Georgia.
Social emotional learning focuses on relationships, sense of identity, showing empathy and other skills. It’s become a target of some conservative movements as an improper influence on young minds. While it’s not in state standards, Gwinnett fully embraces social emotional learning in its operations.
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