By Shannon Fiecke, Staff Writer

One girl came home from school crying. A boy told his mom he covered his face with his T-shirt so he didn’t have to watch. A child was left confused and shocked by what she saw.

This is how at least a few Shakopee students reacted to their sixth-grade human sexuality curriculum, according to a group of parents lobbying the school district for change.

The parents, who believe some material was too vivid, say their kids were humiliated and embarrassed at watching sexual development videos together in a mixed gender environment. One father said his child’s innocence had been ripped from her.

“We assumed it would be like when we went to school,” mother Joy Massard said.

Massard’s husband, Giovanni, a member of the district’s curriculum committee, asked to speak to the Shakopee School Board on Monday because he wasn’t satisfied with the response he got from the committee. The Massards have distributed the educational videos to other families and were joined by some parents at the board meeting.

Parents said they want the district to separate boys and girls in the future for the most sensitive material and for same-gender teachers to present such information.

“Family style — the rest of the time that’s how it goes,” said Andre Boyogueno, pointing out that moms and dads typically talk to daughters and sons, respectively.

Parents were upset they were never notified that their sixth-graders would be receiving the sex education and they asked that parents be notified in the future. Joy Massard said some parents still don’t know their children watched a video of a live birth.

Superintendent Jon McBroom apologized that the middle school failed to alert parents to the upcoming instruction — unlike in past years — and said it will be different next year.

McBroom said he knows this is a sensitive issue, and a letter to sixth-grade parents in the past always notified them about it and said they could opt-out.

Details about the human sexuality instruction were inadvertently left out of a letter this year that just gave the title of the four health units, which included “growth and development” and “communicable and non-communicable diseases.”

Parents are asking the school district go beyond a form letter and post further information on teachers’ Web sites and host a yearly meeting to allow parents to view what will be taught. They would also like parents from diverse cultural backgrounds play a role in reviewing the district’s sexual education curriculum in the future.

School Board Member Bob Loonan said it would be impossible for the district to settle on a curriculum that is acceptable to all families, but it must give parents the chance to opt out.

McBroom said parents are free to review sex-education material and remove their children from the classroom. About two to three families pull their children out every year, he estimated.

Families who opt out can teach their children themselves, he later said, or have them go through an alternative curriculum in an independent study at school.

Parents noted that videos shown by sixth-grade teachers included a live birth, an infrared demonstration of an erection, images of naked females and males in various development stages and an actor showing a bra.

Parents said they understand why the school must teach sex education, but said they believe it can be done in a more sensitive fashion and with better parent notification so moms and dads can talk to their children about the material at home too.

With children hitting puberty, McBroom said sixth grade is an appropriate time for the students to go through the curriculum. He noted that most children are not receiving accurate instruction at home.

He said Shakopee has been teaching the material in a mixed-gender environment in sixth-grade for more than 20 years and districts vary in this.

A benefit to Shakopee’s method is the teacher presenting the material is the person students have grown comfortable with, he said.

Along with the videos, teachers do their own instruction and have other supporting material, McBroom said. They also cover abstinence and teach respect. Teachers spend two weeks on human sexuality, so it’s not thrown at students at once, he said.

Asked by a parent what the educational benefit is of co-ed instruction, McBroom said he couldn’t cite the specific rationale. (He wasn’t at the district when the decision was made.)

The superintendent later said the district has received very little feedback about the sixth-grade instruction: “Far less than one percent have ever asked for something different.”

Joy Massard said 75 percent of children who took an informal survey in one classroom said they would prefer girls and boys to be separated, and every parent she’s talked with has agreed.

McBroom said Shakopee starts human sexuality instruction in fourth grade, which is split by gender, and builds upon on it in sixth, eighth (formerly seventh) and 10th grades. He emphasized that parents are welcome to view textbooks and movies.

District officials said a curriculum subcommittee will review the sexual education coursework this month, and any recommendation made would go to the School Board for approval. A June 19 meeting on the topic is open to the public.

McBroom said parents’ concerns will be conveyed to the committee, and curriculum would only be altered for solid reasons.

“Your input will be looked at closely,” School Board Member John Canny said to parents.

Gedaly Meerovich of the Slavich Community Center in St. Paul also spoke to the School Board on behalf of Shakopee’s Russian community, whom he said objects to the district’s sexual education program.

Meerovich later said that 23 Russian parents met last month with the superintendent on a variety of topics and one of their top concerns was sex education, which they feel is too much, too soon. Removing kids from the classroom isn’t viewed as a pleasant alternative, he said, because parents think their children will be teased.

Parent Andre Boyogueno allowed his two oldest children go through the sixth-grade sex education for such reasons, despite serious reservation. He and his wife thought pulling their kids out might make them more curious, and they also worried how other kids might try to fill their children in.

Parents are asking for a non-embarrassing alternative that will be fun, like basketball.

Having come from a different school system in Canada, Marie Boyogueno said she didn’t know she could ask to review the material being taught in Shakopee.

Now that they’ve actually watched the sixth-grade videos, which they borrowed from the Massards, the Boyoguenos have decided not to allow their youngest children to go through the same curriculum.

Joy Massard said she’s talked about the matter to numerous parents, and videos were viewed by eight families. She said concerns cut across ethnic and religious lines, from Hindu to Christian to Buddhist.

Massard said parents felt the live birth in a Public Broadcasting Service “Nova” video called "Life's Greatest Miracle" was too vivid for 11- and 12-year-olds, and drawings of body changes in a milder movie was too offensive for the values of some families.

Gedaly Meerovich said the concern of other parents affirm the long-standing concerns of Russian immigrants, who’ve been afraid to speak up.

“To me, it’s like we’re on the right page,” he said. “It’s a multicultural issue.”

Shannon Fiecke can be reached at (952) 345-6679 or sfiecke@swpub.com.