The MCPS Board of Education's Sex-Ed Committee Chairmen, Past and Present
Mr. Lawrence Jacobs, a gay professional lawyer, was Chairman of the MCPS Sex-Ed Committee until January, 2003. He had served on the Committee for 6 years, while 4 years is suppose to be the limit (?!?). As stated in the Birth of the Curriculum:
In the 2001-2002 Annual Report of the Citizen's Advisory Committee on Family Life and Human Development (CAC) Annual report, the then Committee Chairman (an openly gay professional lawyer) recommended that the curriculum teach sexual variations since this subject matter is listed in the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) and the schools had never done this [wonder why]. However, there is no listing of a vote on this recommendation by the committee in the report.The current Chairman, Mr. David Fishback, was appointed to the MCPS Sex-Ed Committee in June, 2002 and began his term in September, 2002. Mr. Fishback was elected Chairman in January, 2003 after serving just 4 months. Since appointments to the Committee are for a 2 year term he was reappointed in June, 2004 for another 2 years. He had not served as a member before coming to the Sex-Ed Committee in September, 2002.
Mr. Fishback has told reporters that he joined the Sex-Ed Committee in part because his two grown sons are homosexuals. One of his sons is involved with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in Maryland whose story of coming out to his seventh grade students appeared in two national publications, according to the GLSEN Metro-Baltimore website (see "The Language of Gender" for more on GLSEN and the new Sex-Ed Curriculum) .
Mr. Fishback is on the Board of Directors of the North Eastern Montgomery Political Action Committee (NEMPAC), according to their website. NEMPAC supported and backed Mrs. Pat O'Neil, a two time and current MCPS Board of Education President. Mrs. O'Neil voted in favor of the new Sex-Ed Curriculum in November, 2004 and recently alluded to something like if your children aren't in the
Mr. Fishback is also listed as the point of contact for the
These are the backgrounds of the former and current Chairmen of Montgomery County's Sex-Ed Committee, whose new curriculum:
- encourages students to develop their individual sexual identity, i.e. to identify themselves as heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual
- links the ability to like oneself to one's sexual identity, suggesting to adolescents as young as 13 that a sex life is necessary for a good self-image
- defines family as two or more people who are joined together by emotional feelings or who are related to one another, arbitrarily changing the meaning of family as it has been understood throughout human history
- draws strongly on pro-gay advocacy groups for Approved Teacher Resources
- approved the new sex-ed curriculum by voting from October, 2003 to June, 2004 with only 14 to 20 members present (out of the total 29 voting committee members) because, presumably, the other 9-14 members were not present, even though MCPS Policy states that if member were absent more than 25% of the time they would be 'considered resigned' and therefore replaced, and while all this was happening new Committee applicants were being turned away