Citizens Committee Approves Revised Video

Last night the Citizens Advisory Committee for Family Life and Human Development met, and after a mini-marathon agreed to approve the new condom video, with revisions. The final vote was 11-1, with the CRC member opposing, and the PFOX member joining the majority.

These discussions are fascinating, I think. We have a room full of intelligent people, each with his or her own idea about how things should be. There was the much-discussed video and its asociated curriculum materials, and members of the committee had sent in comments and suggested revisions, which were compiled and organized by staff from the Superintendent's office. There were more than sixty suggested changes.

Last night, the committee (which I am a member of) discussed the video only, not the classroom materials. We adopted a number of changes, including (these are approximate only, taken from my scribbled notes -- the MCPS minutes will be more accurate here):

• Adding a female voice to the video
  
• Showing a close-up of the date and the word "Latex" on the package, followed by hands tearing the package open and the narrator explaining not to use your teeth or scissors
  
• We would like to add 60 seconds of more information, mostly taken from the classroom documentation
  
• We want to substitute the words "vaginal, anal, or oral contact" for "sexual contact" (or something close to that, I didn't write down the final wording)
  
• The statement about abstinence being the "only way to prevent" stuff should be changed to "the only 100 percent effective way"
  
• We want to remove mention of the word "reservoir"
  
• "Doctor" should be changed to "health care provider"

I think that's it.

The committee only makes recommendations, so the school district may or may not decide to implement these changes. But then ... the committee may or may not decide to approve it ...

It seemed to me that the main issue, really, was in deciding what the video was supposed to accomplish. Some thought it should just be a minimal demonstration of how the condom goes on, period. Here's the penis, here's the rubber, the rubber goes on the penis. Some -- including me -- felt that the video should give instruction in the right way to use a condom. That would require a little more information, a little more detail.

Well, let's just say the discussion was dynamic. The issue of whether there should be a female presence in the video was interesting -- some members feel that it's the guy's responsibility, and so it should be a guy in the video. Others thought that women should take responsibility for their own sex lives. The issue of saying "anal, oral, or vaginal," is a tough one. Well, it's a strange issue. To me, it's like when you have kids, and they try to mess with you, like they'll say, "Daddy, is it OK if I use the word X?" And of course they have to use the word X to ask the question, so even if the answer is no, they've still already gotten away with it. Come on, your kids did that, too. You did it when you were a kid, don't lie to me. In the same way, you have to tell students what they shouldn't do, and that includes anal sex, especially, because it is such an important way for disease to spread. You might worry that you're putting ideas in their heads, or that you're making them think it's OK to do as long as they use a condom. I don't know, but I think teenagers hear about these things anyway. And to me, the value of telling them how to do it safer is worth the risk of suggesting something to them.

One member was concerned that there's not enough research specifically testing whether condoms are effective at preventing the spread of disease in anal sex. So we shouldn't recommend it. But really, that's a kind of argument that can blow up in your face. Like, we could say the weatherman shouldn't tell us if it's going to rain tomorrow, because we don't sufficiently understand the Brownian motion of atmospheric molecules, or the fractal nature of the dynamics of gases in an unbounded space. In fact, the weatherman's forecast is better than a naive guess, and the CDC and other government and medical organizations do recommend using a condom for anal sex. Even without perfectly well focused research, it is clear that a condom makes anal sex safer, for those who, for whatever reason, decide to practice it. And it's not our place to judge those people or their reasons. We just don't want them spreading diseases. It seems to me.

At our next meeting, we need to get through the rest of the curriculum materials. That was where the bulk of the comments were, but personally, I am optimistic about reaching consensus fairly rapidly. Most of it was wording changes, there will still be some controversy, but we'll get through it OK, I think.

Then we move on to the sexual orientation part.

Remember, the video was not part of last year's legal ruling, and was not mentioned in the settlement agreement at all. The Superintendent decided to re-do the condom demonstration video for some reasons that he never really explained. Said it was "insufficient," as I recall. So they did it over again, but Virginia, they didn't give you quite enough information (sorry, I just heard Billy Joel on the radio on the way to the Metro station). So the committee is tuning it up a little bit.

And then we will move into the part of the curriculum that was central to the litigation. I will be very interested to see what the school district puts on the table. Though there is a lot of latitude as far as what to include and what not to, and how to put things, there will be some things that are just unacceptable. A single word about "ex-gays" in the materials will send a signal that MCPS has abandoned their academic standards out of fear. For example. (Though of course their lawyers must realize that trying to bring Christian ministries into the classroom would open them up to legal attack from the other side.)

So ... the real hard part is still ahead of us. As long as people keep talking, express what they believe, explain their points, and listen to each other, we will be able to hack together something that serves our community well. None of this is easy, and the constant threat of legal ambush only makes it harder, but ... if that's the world we live in, then -- let's get to work.