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March 26, 2021By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
Potential sex education programs for Worcester Public Schools are to be presented next week at a virtual meeting in which the public can participate.
Catholic doctors are among those who have already expressed their concerns to city officials and given their suggestions about the types of sex education programs the city should consider.
The Worcester Public Schools’ Standing Committee on Teaching, Learning, and Student Supports is holding the meeting at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 30.
Health teachers and WPS administrators will give the presentation at the meeting, according to Molly O. McCullough, the standing committee’s chairwoman. She said they reviewed several curricula and will present and discuss their findings. She was responding by email to questions from The Catholic Free Press.
“There will also be other department of health personnel present at the meeting to answer questions/provide comments,” she said. “Anyone can call in and ask questions and make comments at the meeting.”
When the meeting agenda is available, it will be posted on the Worcester Public Schools website, worcesterschools.org/about/school-committee.
Ms. McCullough said there will be one or two more meetings and committee members will “review the information for further discussion and recommendations to the full committee.”
A letter signed by six doctors was sent March 3 to Worcester Mayor Joseph M. Petty and members of the standing committee, according to a press release from Dr. Mark J. Rollo, one of the signers.
Dr. Rollo is a retired family physician, member of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Fitchburg and board member of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. At least some of the other signers are also Massachusetts Catholics, he said. The other doctors who signed are Thomas E. Sullivan, Mary Simon, Shirley Gonzalez, John Worden and Rebecca Worden.
Dr. Rollo said he’s been working on this matter with the Massachusetts Family Institute.
“As medical doctors we have cared for thousands of our community’s children over the course of our careers,” the letter said. “We have witnessed the physical, emotional, and social harm caused by premature adolescent sexual activity.”
The doctors recommended that the school district adopt a sexual risk avoidance (SRA) curriculum instead of “curricula described as comprehensive sexuality education (CSE).”
The letter included a link to Office of Adolescent Health “evaluations of evidence-based programs” from 2010-2014.
Students in sexual risk avoidance programs are much more likely to delay sexual initiation or discontinue or decrease sexual activity, and are no less likely to use condoms if they initiate sex, the letter said. They are less likely to engage in other risky behaviors and more likely to excel academically.
“Proponents of the CSE approach claim it is ‘evidence-based’ and has been proven effective,” the letter said. It countered that “findings from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services revealed that 80 percent of students fared no better or even worse” than those not given comprehensive sexuality education or teen pregnancy prevention programs, and that “CSE programs even put youth at more risk for sexual initiation, pregnancy, and oral sex.”
Almost 40 percent of teenagers report that comprehensive sexuality education classes create greater pressure to have sex than does pressure from their dating partners, the letter said.
Dr. Rollo told The Catholic Free Press that comprehensive sexuality education tends to be supported by Planned Parenthood; that that business stands to benefit financially by doing abortions on teenaged girls, who often get pregnant eventually if they remain sexually active. With the recent passage of the “ROE Act” in Massachusetts, girls as young as 16 can get an abortion without a parent’s or judge’s consent, he said.
Dr. Rollo said that so-called “safe sex” hasn't worked. Half of all abortions are done on females who were using contraception when they got pregnant, he noted.
The doctors’ letter said that despite comprehensive sexuality education’s promotion of contraception and condom use, sexually transmitted infections are on the rise, with 20 million new cases reported annually, half of them among people ages 15-24.
“These diseases are always more impactful for females,” he said.
“Other negative effects experienced by sexually active youth include teen pregnancy, out-of-wedlock births and abortions, sexual violence, anxiety and depression, suicide, poverty, and more,” the doctors’ letter said. “CSE is not improving health outcomes for students.”
Dr. Rollo said that in the early-1960s, before the birth control pill, the out-of-wedlock birth rate was 5 percent, and now it is more than 40 percent.
The doctors’ letter contrasted comprehensive sexuality education with sexual risk avoidance programs. It said the latter aim to encourage “all students to avoid all risk by not engaging in high-risk behavior” and empower students engaging in such behavior to stop.
“When choosing an approach to sex education, we must use a model that optimally serves children, families, and communities,” the letter concluded. “Worcester students deserve the best. School-based SRA education is best for our youth.”
– The school department provided the following information for connecting with the meeting:
The meeting link is:
The passcode is 503120.
The webinar ID is 842 3282 4759.
The telephone numbers are:
1-301-715-8592 or 1-312-626-6799.
