Sex Book Should Stay Put, Alaskan School Panel Says

The Anchorage, Alaska, School District's Controversial Issues Review Committee voted Tuesday to leave the sex education book It's Perfectly Normal on school library shelves. The 10-3 vote followed testimony from Eric and Joan Egeland and Rick and Andrea Steele, parents of students at Oceanview Elementary School. It is one of 16 Anchorage middle and elementary schools where the book on library shelves.

Rick Steele said the book undermines the district's commitment to teaching fifth- and sixth-grade students about abstinence. In addition, the parents objected to most of the book's illustrations. "We do not believe a book with pictures of people having sex, naked bodies, people masturbating, people putting on condoms, a student having an erection in front of a school class, gay people hugging is necessary at the school level," Eric Egeland said.

The Egelands and Steeles filed separate requests last spring asking that the book be checked out only to those students who have parental permission. Goldenview Middle School librarian Linda Masterson moved to keep the book on shelves. Most of the committee members supported the motion. The committee ruling now goes to superintendent Carol Comeau. She will pass that decision and her own opinion to the School Board which will rule on the book Oct. 8.

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