STOPPED A QUESTIONABLE VIDEO AND QUESTIONABLE GRADUATION POLICIES:

Sometimes while serving on the Katy ISD school board, I was very frustrated, because while I could see things that were being done that were ethically wrong and harmful to students, I didn't have the votes to change those things.  So I resorted to other means.  What follows is a letter to the Editor of the Katy Times.  The Katy Times in those days was always very accommodating with regard to publishing long letters from me! 

Here is the letter that I wrote:

March 4, 1996

Editor

Katy Times

Editor:

Please allow me to correct two issues that were covered in the Feb. 28 edition of your paper.

With regard to the sex education unit for 15 year olds in our high schools, you reported that I wanted the district to “edit one of the video presentations approved for the course because of references to extramarital sex and a perceived approval of divorce.” What I actually said was that the proposed video, which chronicles the lives of a young couple who discover they are HIV positive when their newborn baby develops AIDS and dies, needs to be edited with regard to these two issues. First, the young man and his wife, after the death of their child, become spokesmen for an AIDS awareness group. In speaking to young people, the father is shown discussing the rather promiscuous lifestyle he and his wife had when they were in college. He makes the statement that they each had multiple sexual partners prior to marriage, and neither knows which one originally contracted the AIDS virus. At no time does he indicate that their behavior is wrong and that their behavior is responsible for their situation and the death of their child.

The other problem I saw with this video is that after the young man acquires AIDS, his wife separates (not divorces!) from him. She does not care for him while he is ill; his mother does. The wife comes back to see him the day he dies, and then she notes in narration how pleased he seemed to be to see her!

My concern with these two episodes of their lives is that our teachers in showing these parts of the video will be sending the wrong message to our students if we allow to stand the idea that “having multiple sexual partners before marriage” is OK. It is also not a good message to send to 15 year olds that if one marries and one’s spouse becomes ill, that it is all right to separate. What happened to “love and cherish, in sickness and health, until death do us part”? Do we want to tell students that if one’s spouse becomes ill it is OK to take off and not help in that time of need?

The other issue has to do with board policy on graduation. There is already existing policy with regard to graduation exercises. I brought forward some additions to that policy because I believe that the direction of one of our high schools is not proper. Your statement that “Dr. Merrell gave the indication that at least one school might be considering dispensing with that tradition” [allowing the salutatorian and the valedictorian to give the speeches at graduation] leaves an erroneous impression for your readers. As I quickly pointed out that night, there is no “might be” involved! Someone (and it was not the students) at Taylor High School decided at least five years ago that the students would select the graduation speaker and that the valedictorian and the salutatorian would not give speeches. Last year the valedictorian and the salutatorian at Taylor were not even recognized at the graduation ceremony for their accomplishments in any way, much less allowed to give a speech! I am hopeful that the Board will develop policy to insure that at the graduation ceremony Taylor shows recognition for true scholarship as do Mayde Creek and Katy high schools. [The principal at Mayde Creek was also wanting to allow more attention for 60 hours of "volunteer service" than it was for the two people who had the highest grade point average for four years of high school academic work!]

In my opinion public schools are misleading students when they tell them that everyone has equal ability, that there is no competition in real life, and that if they just work hard, the rewards will be there for the taking.

Mary McGarr

For the time being, the video was canceled, and the valedictorian and the salutatorian were allowed to give the main speeches at Katy ISD graduations.

I do not know what the current policy is.