Students, teacher critical of sex-ed class

Kathryn Braisted WESTFALL — The new elective class that focuses on sex education wasn’t very impressive or effective, according to some Delaware Valley High School students who recently completed the course. The class, which is opted for via students’ gym period, is taught using Aspire, an 80-page, eight-chapter workbook that emphasizes abstinence as the safest, healthiest lifestyle. It is designed to run for 15 days, or half a marking period, and also comes with an optional parent component. Included in the book are chapters on the media, goal-setting, drugs and alcohol, and sexually transmitted diseases. According to DVHS teacher Dolores Brennan, that last chapter is what the course is required to be centered around. Though Aspire solely promotes abstinence, Brennan says that while teachers can talk additionally about condom use, it is school district policy that the discussion is only in regard to sexually transmitted disease prevention, not safe sex practices. For senior Jordyn Horning, that isn’t good enough. Horning, who was representative of several other students interviewed, said, “Aspire wasn’t so much a sex-ed class as it was abstinence-ed.” Horning was in a class of about 15 other seniors. “It preached all the ways and reasons why you should abstain, rather than ways to protect yourself and avoid pregnancy. I wouldn’t recommend taking it,” she said. From the teacher’s point of view, Brennan said she had a class one period with three students who chose the course because they didn’t want to participate in gym. That sort of motivation is what Brennan says renders the class a let-down. “I think the subject interests the kids, but it’s all about your values,” she said, noting that the seniors were much more vocal in their dislike of Aspire. “I’m disappointed in the way the course turned out. It’s a step in the right direction, but there has to be a better way to spread the message,” Brennan concluded.