A sex education skit staged at Kahuku High & Intermediate School last Friday has parents upset and the principal apologizing and re-evaluating procedures for inviting programs on campus.

"It Can Happen to You" was touted as a play that encourages safe practices for teenagers and was part of a peer education program for the school's prom season. It was part of an assembly attended by 600 students from grades seven to 12.

According to parents, teachers and students who saw it, the play was so graphic and disturbing that some students and teachers walked out.

Michael Sudlow, a parent of a 16-year-old student there, called the play semi-pornographic and too torrid to describe in print for a family newspaper.

"Except for one passing reference to abstinence, they centered on 'safe sex' and included dildos, male and female condoms and how to use them, explanations about oral sex and a Saran Wrap condom alternative," Sudlow said. "We were really shocked at the audacity of the school to show that kind of stuff."

Sudlow said his son saw one girl try to leave the assembly but was detained until she called her mother. The son was too embarrassed to even tell his mother about the program, said Sudlow, who works in the admissions office at Brigham Young University-Hawai'i.

TOWNS ABUZZ

The school assembly has generated a lot of buzz around Kahuku and La'ie towns, he said. Even at church, people were talking about it, Sudlow said.

"Pornography is the kind of stuff in your mind you can't erase," he said. "It's going to be in those kids' minds for years to come."

Sudlow acknowledged that as part of the Mormon church he might have different standards than his neighbors, but said that in condoning the play, the school ignored the general family values of the community.

"It was humiliating for some of the kids in that room, and my son thought it was degrading," Sudlow said.

A teacher who didn't want to be named called the play shocking and inappropriate, especially for some younger students. But she said the message of abstinence and the point of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease were good. The play used humor to get the message across and caught students' attention but some students and teachers walked out, the teacher said.

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

School Principal Lisa DeLong took full responsibility for the play being on campus, and said she is apologizing to people she speaks to and will send a letter of apology to the community.

About 600 of the 1,750 students on campus in grades seven to 12 attended, DeLong said.

DeLong said she failed at two levels. She didn't preview the content of the play and she didn't make sure that parents received a letter they could sign to give permission to their student to not attend, she said. The opt-out letters are standard procedures for controversial topics and the school has never had a problem with them before, DeLong said.

The Kalihi-Palama Health Center Family Planning Service sponsored the play, provided the opt-out letters and had done another presentation at the school, without problems, she said.

The assembly was to focus on safe practices during prom night, which was Wednesday, but the play's content didn't fit that theme, she said.

"I accept responsibility but really failed to properly scrutinize the assembly prior to having it presented, so there was content that was of a very sensitive nature and it did involve contraception," she said. "Although within the Department of Education we are allowed to teach that, parents always have the right to preview any type of controversial presentation."

Besides the apology letters, the school has a new plan to prevent this from happening again, DeLong said.

A dozen complaints were lodged, but each one represented many individuals, she said.

The state Board of Education also received e-mail complaints, said Donna Ikeda, BOE chairwoman. The full board was informed of the Kahuku assembly on Thursday.

'TAKEN BY SURPRISE'

Ikeda said she could see how the mistake was made because the material explaining the play didn't give many details and the title of the play also revealed very little. Aside from the Kahuku complaints, no other complaints have been registered about the play, which, according to its literature, has been staged on five islands and in California, she said. But she didn't know how many other schools had seen it or which ones.

"I think everybody got taken by surprise," Ikeda said, adding that the school hadn't violated any policy but could have done more to screen the content and warn parents.

The Kahuku area is very involved with the school and has many residents with strong religious convictions, and that could explain why there were complaints when previous presentations had not generated complaints, Ikeda said.

"But the kinds of things that they mentioned that happened, I think it would probably concern most parents because it's not so much they mentioned condoms but they went so far as to produce a fake penis," she said. "I'm in favor of sex education, but I think there's a time and place for it."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.