Sex orientation curriculum debated

LEXINGTON -- Parents upset with the way Lexington schools address homosexuality spoke out before and during a School Committee meeting last night, criticizing a recent program at the high school and a book given to kindergartners that depicts same-sex couples.

But school officials and other parents backed the school system, saying that tolerance is being taught. About 20 people from a new group called Lexington Parents for Respect attended a press conference outside Jonas Clarke Middle School before the School Committee meeting. About a dozen held signs, including ''Education Yes, Indoctrination No."

''We want respect for our kids and respect for our family borders," said Gerry Wambolt, a parent and spokesman for the group.

The School Committee took no action on the complaints, some of which were made during the public comment period. At issue are two high-profile events last month that revealed deep divisions in town over sexuality education.

On April 13, the high school's annual Day of Silence -- in which students take a vow of silence to show solidarity with gays and lesbians and transgendered people -- led to confrontations between students for and against the event.

On April 27, David Parker, the father of a kindergartner at Joseph Estabrook Elementary School, was arrested for trespassing during a discussion with school officials about a diversity book that depicts same-sex couples.

Superintendent Bill Hurley, during a brief press conference before last night's School Committee meeting, said critics of the kindergarten book have misrepresented it as being about sexuality.

''It's about children and the households from which they come," Hurley said.

Meg Soens, who has two children in second grade and two in fifth grade at Estabrook, said at the meeting that hers is one of the families in Lexington headed by same-sex couples.

''You would not exclude a multiracial family or a book dealing with multiracial families because of sincere religious opposition to it," Soens said.

During the School Committee meeting, Lexington High School's principal, Michael P. Jones, defended the Day of Silence, quoting from the state Education Department website's recommendations that schools establish support groups for gay and lesbian students and awareness programs about sexual orientation.

But Muriel Ward, who has two grandchildren in the school system, suggested that school officials are forcing on schoolchildren a dangerous view of sex.

''In this kind of organizing, there's an unhealthy emphasis on risky behavior and no presentation about risks," Ward said. ''And there's pressure on the students to see experimentation as cool, often when many students 14 and under are still in the latent stages of development, and sex is very much on the back burner."

Jesse Segovia, who has a third-grader in the system, suggested that officials consult parents about what they teach about sexuality. ''We'd like to see a real honest and genuine effort to involve parents in the development of this kind of curriculum," Segovia said.