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High School Must Bus Students From Rented Catholic Building For Sex-Ed

By Howard M. Friedman

Yesterday's Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger reports that some public school officials in Perth Amboy (NJ) apparently did not read a lease closely enough when last year the district rented an empty Catholic school six blocks from Perth Amboy High School to alleviate overcrowded classrooms. It turns out that a clause in the lease prohibits using the premises to teach doctrines contrary to those of the Catholic Church. This means that the building may not be used to teach sex education that does not promote abstinence-only. So now students must be bussed back to the high school's main building for their sex-education classes. Perth Amboy's director of health and physical education says that ironically the students are now probably remembering more of what they are taught in sex-ed classes because of what they have to go through to get the information. [Thanks to Mike Cundiff for the lead.]

Full post as published by Religion Clause on April 07, 2009 (boomark / email).