Hawaii's education department keeping sex-ed curriculum a secret

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http://www.hawaiireporter.com/hawaiis-education-department-keeping-sex-ed-curriculum-a-secret/123

The Ewa Republican is outraged that the state Department of Education won’t release a copy of its controversial sex-education curriculum, Pono Choices, now being taught to the state’s 11-, 12- and 13-year-olds in public middle schools.

As a parent, taxpayer and legislator, McDermott said he should be able to get a copy of the 10-hour curriculum from either the state Department of Education or the University of Hawaii Center on Disability Studies, which developed the $800,000 pilot program.

“We are asking the public to demand that all materials used in the Pono Choices program be released to the public, whose tax money has already paid for it to be developed, so that they can be informed as to what is being put in front of their innocent children in our public education system,” McDermott said Wednesday.

Some 1,700 public middle school students already have been through the Pono Choices curriculum. “Pono” means “the right way” or “doing what is right” in the Hawaiian language.

The DOE has called the program “medically accurate,” adding it informs teens about pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. But many parents have found its content offensive, graphic and inappropriate for their children. It includes sections on same-sex relationships.

Some parents also were concerned when their 11-year-olds learned about anal, vaginal and oral sex, McDermott said. Other parents complained when they were discovered their children learned to put a condom on a cucumber or wooden replica of a penis.