Boulder -The controversy surrounding a frank and provocative panel discussion about sex and drugs at Boulder High School continues to churn, nearly two months after the discussion took place.
In the past month, 10 state senators have sent a letter to the Boulder Valley School Board asking that key school administrators be fired over the panel, and media pundits locally and nationally have blasted the school for hosting the panel, which critics say was too graphic and permissive in tone.
“Some of the things said to those kids was flat-out dangerous,” Denver radio host Dan Caplis said Tuesday. “… Kids at that age, not all of them but some of them, are struggling with these issues.”
At the same time, a growing number of people in Boulder are pushing back against the criticism.
Boulder High sophomore Jesse Lange told the City Council on Tuesday night that much of the media attention has been misleading and comments were taken out of context.
“It’s been pretty disturbing, some of the things that people have been saying,” Lange said.
“People have been saying that the panelists were telling us to have sex and use drugs indiscriminately. That is a complete and total fabrication.”
Lange said more students would have attended the meeting to vent their anger over the controversy, but they had to study for finals.
The panel took place in April and was part of the University of Colorado’s Conference on World Affairs.
“I’m going to encourage you to have sex, and I’m going to encourage you to use drugs appropriately,” one panelist, clinical psychologist Joel Becker, told students. “And why I am going to take that position is because you’re going to do it anyway.”
But the panelists also encouraged students to be responsible and think about the consequences of their actions.
“This is about thinking about the choices you’re making today and how they’re going to affect you over the long haul,” panelist Andee Gerhardt said.
Last month, a Boulder High student and her mother complained to the school board about the panel.
Two weeks later, Boulder Valley Superintendent George Garcia announced that several staff members had received verbal reprimands because the panel’s makeup did not conform to the district’s policy for being balanced and inclusive when teaching controversial subjects. He also said the district would no longer require attendance at the forums and that parents would be notified of topics in advance.
But he stood by the overall message of the panel.
“Its intent was to discuss with students the risks of engaging in certain behaviors before they are emotionally and psychologically mature enough to cope with their consequences,” Garcia wrote in a report to the school board.
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
