Brockton public school students may have different lessons in their health classes than kids in some other communities. That's because what is taught depends on where students live.
“Right now, comprehensive health education depends on an accident of geography,” said Kelly O'Bryan, political director for the Massachusetts branch of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, known as NARAL.
“What students are taught is determined by where they go to school,” O'Bryan said.
Together with Planned Parenthood, NARAL sponsored a lobby day at the Statehouse on Tuesday to push for, among other things, a new public school health curriculum that would include sex education by the end of fifth grade.
Although the state Department of Education now sets a framework for health education, it is only a guideline.
State Rep. Alice Wolf, a Cambridge Democrat, has filed legislation that would require mandatory standards for what is taught.
“One of the most important things we can teach children is how to take care of themselves,” Wolf said.
The proposed curriculum includes 14 subject areas that K-12 educators would have to teach, including nutrition, violence prevention, mental health and reproduction and sexuality.
While most schools incorporate some of these topics into health education, there are few that include all 14.
“Schools have pieces of what should be taught, but not the whole,” O'Bryan said. “Every aspect of health education is important and needs to be taught.”
Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Initiative, said sex education should be an elective course.
“Sex education first and foremost is a parent's responsibility and parent's right to decide when to introduce this and what to teach their child,” Mineau said.
Mary Ellen Kirrane, the department head of wellness for Brockton schools, said in a phone interview that in the 21 years she has held her position, health education there has always been comprehensive.
“We feel very committed to teaching kids how to eat right and stay healthy,” she said. “It's just as important as math and reading.”
O'Bryan said many districts argue that incorporating the entirety of the curriculum would be too costly.
But in a cost analysis report by NARAL, the Brockton school district is highlighted for its success in teaching health education at a low cost to the district. According to the report, comprehensive health education accounts for only 1.83 percent of the district's total budget, or about $200 per student.
Kirrane said Brockton is able to keep the district's costs down by bringing in community members to teach on a particular subject.
The Brockton Fire Department, Police Department, and Bridgewater State College are a few of the agencies that offer a variety of health and safety workshops to students.
Addressing another common concern, Wolf said the bill states that parents may opt their children out of the sexual component of health education.
“It's a right that we're conscious of,” Wolf said. “And we've made the opportunity for parents to exercise that.”
But Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Initiative, said parents should opt into sex education, not out.
“Too often parents are not properly notified in enough time to opt out, they don't know what is being taught, and there is a stigma placed on students who withdraw from the classes,” Mineau said.
The groups at the rally also pushed for legislation to expand so-called protest “buffer zones” outside women's health clinics and to repeal laws banning contraceptives that they said are outdated.