BARTOW -- Giving Polk County high school students the option of skipping a course about sexual issues is not sitting well with Health Department Director Dr. Daniel Haight.
The Family Dynamics course, which addresses such issues as date rape and sexually transmitted diseases, was asked to be axed as a mandatory class by high school principals across the school district, said Director of Secondary Education Ward Hurst. He and the principals have been hit with complaints by both students and parents about the content and redundancy of the material, he said.
But Haight fears that downgrading the class to an elective could be hazardous to the well-being of teen-agers within the school district.
Because the required ninth-grade Life Management course deals with similar issues, students have complained about reviewing the same lessons in grades 11 or 12.
In addition, the course is not mandated by the state of Florida, therefore the half-credit it carries can interfere with other classes students must take, Hurst said.
Moreover, parents have complained about the content their children are subjected to in the class.
If the board votes on Jan. 12 to remove the course from the mandatory curriculum, it would be shelved as an elective for high school students. But Hurst believed the course registration rate would not decrease substantially.
"There will be a lot of kids taking it because it is a very good course," Hurst said. "There is really no reason to think that the popularity of this course will go away."
But Haight contends that the course addresses critical problems affecting Polk teens today. He cited statistics from the health department in Polk County that show a number of alarming problems:
* The county remains at the top of all Florida counties in teen birth rate.
* It also has one of the highest child abuse report rates in the state.
* Over 40 percent of the mothers giving birth in Polk County each year are unwed.
* There is a persistent lack of knowledge regarding AIDS, which is the fourth most common cause of death among young adults in the county.
"This course is an excellent follow-up to the required ninth-grade life management course," Haight said. "Although both courses discuss similar issues, the ninth-grade course focuses on the individual, whereas the 11th- and 12th-grade course prepares the student for post-high school life as a member of the community."
School board member Brenda Reddout echoed Haight's comments.
"Our county leads the state on a number of indicators we shouldn't be happy with, such as domestic violence, child abuse and teen pregnancies," she said.
But Hurst said there wasn't statistical proof that the Family Dynamics course is making a difference in current problems.
"Whether or not this specific course changed these patterns is another matter," he said. "I think we are dealing with a person's opinion."
