After a year of controversy, the Montgomery County school board’s proposed sex education curriculum remains untaught. The school board, as part of a law settlement, formed an advisory board that allowed Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum (CRC) and Parents and Friends of Gays and Ex-Gays (PFOX) to each have one seat on the advisory board and are to come up with a new curriculum this year.

The settlement did not bar the school board from teaching anything about homosexuality. It does, however, address the two groups’, CRC and PFOX, objections to resource materials that had been distributed for teacher use only. The materials included articles that in some cases described religious denominations, such as Baptists, as less tolerant of homosexuality. CRC and PFOX argued that such viewpoints might find their way into the classroom, which is why they took the school board to court.

County schools Superintendent Jerry D. Weast suspended the course last May after a federal judge issued a 10-day restraining order against the curriculum being taught. The new curriculum was being piloted at three high schools (not WJ) and three middle schools for eight and tenth graders. Many county teachers, including health teacher Gladwin Worden did not even get a chance to see the curriculum. Walter Johnson’s other health teacher, Kathleen Carey did. After the curriculum was challenged, classes went back to using the old contraceptives video that talks about some devices that aren’t even on the market anymore or are unsafe to use.

The curriculum is to be piloted as soon as the board comes up with a program everyone can agree on.