Southworth responds: "I'm not threatening anyone"

The letter, dated March 24, outlines a number of ways a comprehensive sex education curriculum - including instruction on the use of contraceptives - could create liability for school districts and teachers under existing state laws.

Some local leaders in education, however, do not see the letter, which was written strongly against the new sex education legislation, as a mere warning.

"It comes out as a threat to teachers," said Necedah Area School District Administrator Charles Krupa. "He's just stated that this is the law and this is what I'm going to do."

Schools in Krupa's district, however, will not be impacted by the law either way. The Necedah Area School District has been without any sex education curriculum for over 15 years - a product of the difficulty in navigating what many consider to be a personal or even religious issue.

"There's too many variables and situations," said Krupa. "For us to try to boil this down to one correct answer, then we've really missed the boat."

School District of Mauston Superintendent Dr. Steven Smolek and Mauston School Board President Carrie Buss, unlike Krupa, do not have the luxury of observing the controversy from the outside looking in.

"We're certainly going to be looking to the state for an opinion on this," said Smolek. "I want to be able to reassure our teachers that they're not going to be put at risk."

As for whether Mauston schools will opt in or out of the state mandates, Buss said the board will follow the same process they always have concerning sex education curriculum.

"We have two committees to deal with this topic of sex education in schools," she said. "It's their charge to make it fit with what the community is looking for and what the state Department of Public Instruction is telling us to do."

Regardless of what is ultimately decided, Southworth is adamant he does not intend to be the one making the decision.

"It's not my role to dictate or decide what is being taught in classes," he said. "It is my role to advise school districts when there is legal liability."

Buss, however, said the letter may have gone too far in pushing local school boards towards opting out of teaching sex education at all.

"I have significant respect for our county D.A.," she said. "I'd hope he wouldn't be using that position to be threatening to other elected officials."

Many parents and teachers in the School District of Mauston and around the county have spoken out against the bill, including at the public forum portion of Mauston's last regular school board meeting.

Janet McCauley, a speech pathologist in Mauston schools and a member of the Mauston Ministerial Association, was one in their number. She spoke out against the new legislation before Southworth's letter had even been sent.

"We were concerned enough about this bill that we wanted the school board to be aware of the so-called Healthy Youth Act," she said.

McCauley said she supports an abstinence-centered curriculum and that sex education should fall on the shoulders of parents and community organizations.

The moral and family values aspect of the bill, however, is not the only part of the legislation she disagrees with.

"It tramples on the rights of the school board to choose their own curriculum," she said. "Once the state comes down and starts dictating what a local community has to include - it is very dangerous."

Southworth shares the feeling, but has a different word for it.

"I found it insulting the state Legislature doesn't believe that we have the ability to decide what to teach our children," he said.

Despite his personal views as an evangelical Christian and outspoken pro-life activist, Southworth does not want to take sex education out of the classroom.

"I believe in sex education," he said. "I support sex education in the school. This law just goes too far."

Southworth said that educating youth about human sexuality should be a part of secondary science curriculum and that contraceptives should be discussed, just not to the extent the Healthy Youth Act mandates.

"Basic education on what a condom is - there's nothing illegal about that," he said. "[When] you have to instruct [children] how to use it - that's where you get into the advocacy issues."

According to the attorney, this is the aspect that will prove most legally troubling to teachers, school districts and his office.

"When you teach a kid to use a condom, you are either saying you think he's going to have sex or you know he's going to have sex," he said. "Since it is illegal for children to have sex, why are we teaching them how to use contraceptives?"

Southworth said he fears the bill will potentially give the parents of teens engaging in sexual acts legal grounds for filing complaints against teachers.

"Of all people that I don't want to prosecute, it's teachers," he said. "I don't think the state Legislature intended to put teachers in this position. However, the law does."

In writing his opinion on the bill, Southworth said he strove to keep his focus on protecting the interests of children and teachers - not his own personal beliefs.

"I did everything I could to ensure that these are not my personal opinions, but my professional opinion," he said. "I did not say sex before marriage is wrong because that would be unethical. Whatever decisions the school boards make, they make."

The national news attention the letter has garnered may push the issue onto the agendas of local school boards prematurely, with most boards still struggling to set their budgets for the 2010-11 school year.

In the difficult decisions ahead, Southworth cautions school boards to take the deliberate route.

"I didn't say get rid of your sex education curriculum forever," he said. "I said set it aside until we can get this amended."

According to Southworth, an amendment would ideally include "100 percent explicit protection for teachers if they are forced to teach content within the law."

However, if school boards opt in, Southworth said he will treat each case as he has any other in his six years as Juneau County District Attorney.

"If they start teaching under this mandate with the legal risks, they have to be prepared," he said.