Pickens County Schools Solicits Feedback From Citizens on Sex Ed Policy

The Pickens County School Board would like citizen feedback on the curriculum materials for the Sex Education/AIDS Education program, “Get Real.”

The “Get Real” curriculum was created by Choosing the Best Publishing. www.choosingthebest.com

The program, which is designed to fulfill state statute (160-4-2-12), has as its components:

Choosing the Best Way – 6th Grade
Choosing the Best Path – 7th Grade
Choosing the Best Life – 8th Grade

The curriculum was chosen by the Sex Education/AIDS education committee. The school board will review and comment on the matter but the committee has final jurisdiction.
Parents can choose to opt-out of the program and must sign a permission slip for students to be excused from the curriculum.

Sandy Greene, Director of Teaching and Learning, provided the following definition for FYN readers:

Definition – Sex education/AIDS education – a planned program that shall include instruction relating to the handling of peer pressure, promotion of high self-esteem, local community values, and abstinence from sexual activity as an effective method of preventing acquired immune deficiency syndrome and the only sure method of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. This instruction shall emphasize abstinence from sexual activity until marriage and fidelity in marriage as important personal goals.

The state statute reads:

(f) Each local board of education shall establish a committee to review periodically sex/AIDS education instructional materials and make recommendations concerning age/grade level use. Recommendations made by the committee shall be approved by the local board of education before implementation. The committee shall be composed primarily of nonteaching parents who have children enrolled in the local public schools and who represent the diversity of the student body augmented by others such as educators, health professionals and other community representatives. The committee shall also include a male and female student currently attending the 11th or 12th grade in the public schools.

The law became effective on September 11th, 2013

Curriculum materials can be viewed by the public for thirty days following the last BOE meeting (August 14) the office is located at 100 D. B. Carroll Street, Jasper, GA.