New condom video earns praise

Some changes needed, review panel member says

Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2006

by Sean R. Sedam

Staff Writer

A new video on using condoms is boring, say members of a panel charged with reviewing sex education lessons in county schools.

But a representative of a group that sued to block an earlier version of the video says it presents just the facts, and that satisfies any objections.

‘‘I think it’s going to be more effective for kids,” Ruth Jacobs, an infectious disease physician in Rockville who serves on the advisory panel, said of the new video. ‘‘It’s not very distracting. [It says,] ‘This is what you need to do to use a condom. The end.’”

The panel got its first look at the new video last week.

Jacobs represents Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, one of two groups that sued the school system in 2005 over revisions to the health curriculum for eighth- and 10th-graders. The revisions included a discussion of sexual orientation, as well as the video, which is intended for 10th-graders.

‘‘I think it’s a good place to start,” said Jim Kennedy, an advisory panel member and president of TeachtheFacts.org, a rival to CRC. ‘‘I hope we could get a little bit more information into it. ... I think they were a little bit cautious.”

The eight-minute video, part of a 45-minute lesson, is less flashy than a video approved by the board in November 2004.

The old video featured what some called an ‘‘MTV style,” with slick graphics, quick edits and up-tempo music. It featured a young woman discussing how to buy condoms, as well as how condoms can reduce the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases or becoming pregnant. She also used a cucumber to demonstrate the proper way of putting on a condom. Critics said the video did not emphasize abstinence enough and seemed to condone sexual activity among teens.

What happens next
The advisory panel will discuss the video at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 13 in the Carver Educational Services Center in Rockville.
The county school board is scheduled to vote in January on plans to pilot the new sex education curriculum, including the video and sexual orientation discussions, in the spring. It is expected to vote this summer on a final version of the curriculum to be used in health classes in fall 2007.

The new video features white text on a blue, swirling computer-generated background. A male narrator, who is never seen, describes how to examine, put on and remove and discard a condom. The person performing the demonstration is not seen other than his hands.

The video stresses abstinence.

‘‘Abstinence from sex is the only way to prevent unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections,” is one of the first and last messages that students see and hear.

Jacobs praised the video for its repetition. ‘‘If there’s a child in a car on a dark night, he’s going to be able to close his eyes and see what was in that video,” she said.

Kennedy joined Michelle Turner, president of CRC, on a WETA-FM radio program last week. Both agreed that the video is boring.

‘‘There’s no cucumber, there’s no flashy backgrounds, it’s very factual,” Turner said during the program.

‘‘It’s almost like it’s intentionally boring,” Kennedy said in an interview Friday. But that does not mean it will put students to sleep. ‘‘They’re putting a condom over a fake penis,” he said. ‘‘They’re going to watch that.”

In May 2005, a federal judge stopped the school system from teaching a pilot lesson in eighth and 10th grade that discussed homosexuality, citing teacher resource material that the judge said unfairly singled out religious denominations for their views on homosexuality.

The school board threw out the lesson, as well as the condom video, and dissolved the committee that recommended the curriculum.

The two groups that brought the lawsuit, CRC and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, were guaranteed seats on a new committee.

The new committee is taking a less active role than the previous panel, some of whose members helped write the curriculum. This time school administrators, with the input of pediatricians and lawyers, are developing the curriculum.

Kennedy said that while he would like to see a few changes to the video, he does not plan to stand in the way of new curriculum, as CRC and PFOX have done in the past. If his opinion is in the minority, he will accept the panel’s recommendation, he said.

‘‘The point is, we can discuss these things and come to an agreement that satisfies all these viewpoints well enough,” Kennedy said. ‘‘Not everybody is going to get everything we want. What I want to see is we follow a process of talking to each other like grown-ups.”

Kennedy said he plans to suggest adding instructions that were not included in the new video, such as to be sure to throw away a condom that is unrolled inside out.

‘‘The point is to give students enough information so they can get the 98 percent effectiveness rate,” he said. ‘‘The question is does this video give students enough information to get that 98 percent effectiveness rate? I don’t think it does.”