Organizations approved to present on health education topics in Boulder Valley 9 Health Fair in the Classroom Alcohol Diversion Program Asian Pacific Development Center Blue Sky Bridge Body Beloved Boulder County AIDS Project Boulder County Healthy Youth Alliance Boulder Pride Boulder Valley Safe Schools Coalition Boulder Youth Body Alliance Broomfield Health and Human Services Reproductive Health Clinic Boulder Children, Youth and Family Mediation Program Colie’s Closet Community Action Program Cornerstone Program Defense Awareness Response Training Family Tree Gemini Gateway Peer Drug Education Program GENESIS Mental Health Center serving Boulder and Broomfield counties Moving to End Sexual Assault Peers Building Justice Prevention Education Planned Parenthood Project Yes Real Choices Pregnancy Care Center Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence Sexual Health and AIDS Peer Education program SpeakingOUT Skintek Inc. (healthy skin) Tobacco Education and Prevention Partnership Dr. Elizabeth Turner (backpack safety and spinal health) Women’s Health YMCA of Boulder Valley

A Boulder mother says she’s concerned that a Boulder Valley School District abstinence presenter is sending girls the wrong message, equating sexual activity with being dirty.

Laura Binegar said she became concerned after her daughter detailed a recent presentation on abstinence given in her health education class at Southern Hills Middle School. Her daughter described an activity where students spit food into water glasses, then were asked if they would rather drink from a clean glass or a dirty one.

“I trusted the school,” Binegar said. “They’re telling teenage girls that they’re dirty and bad. It sounds like it was just awful. I don’t understand what the message was.”

The presenter, Brad Seng, said the student appears to have misconstrued the talk.

“One of the first things I say is that it’s not that sex is bad or is a dirty activity to be engaging in,” he said. “That’s not it at all. It’s about encouraging young people to make healthy lifestyle decisions. Our method is grounded in truth and non-judgmental.”

He said he provides information on sexually transmitted diseases from the Centers for Disease Control, as well as information on “the emotional strife when children choose to be sexually active.”

The water glass activity, he said, is a way to engage students. He said students drink the water while eating a snack and mixing some of their snack in the water. Then they exchange glasses. He asks them to drink the water, prompting students to say, “No, it looks nasty.”

“It’s a way to show them that, if they decide to be sexually active outside of a long-term committed relationship, they’re putting themselves at risk,” he said.

Seng is the abstinence educator for Boulder’s Real Choices Pregnancy Care Center. The center describes itself as “a Christian, nonprofit, non-political organization that helps clients find constructive alternatives to abortion.”

Seng said he’s spoken to classes at Southern Hills for five years. There haven’t been any other complaints about his presentations, according to the school principal and the school district.

Along with presenting in Boulder Valley schools, Seng also has talked at the University of Colorado, Colorado State University and private, religious schools.

Altogether, there are 33 approved organizations on the district’s health education presenter list. Teachers choose presenters to augment the curriculum, which takes a comprehensive approach to sex education that includes information about abstinence and contraception. Presenters do not charge a fee.

Binegar said inviting a speaker from a Christian organization violates the separation of church and state.

“It’s very clear that he’s pushing Christ,” she said.

But Seng said he understands the boundaries and doesn’t bring religion into his talks at public schools.

Binegar took her concerns to Southern Hills Principal Terry Gillach, saying she was told that Seng is a “great guy” and the school would continue to use him as a speaker.

Gillach said he only saw a small part of the presentation but, based on the teacher’s description, it was “completely innocuous.”

“He never talks about religion,” Gillach said. “He talks about abstinence with kids. It’s one method of the many other options students have.”

The mother of an eighth-grader at Lyons Middle/Senior High School also recently complained about a similar abstinence presentation. The mother said that presenters affiliated with a faith-based nonprofit, Longmont’s Life Choices, are teaching a slanted view of reproductive health in her son’s health class.