Sex Ed Standoff

Submitted by: Group 1

Brock Alikia ,Lopez Carmen, McDougald Madison, Scruggs Jensen
Salt Lake Community College
COMM 1010-423
December 3, 2017
 Table of Contents
Executive Summary p.2
Project Description p.3
Methods p.4
Problem Question p.4
Analyzing the Problem p. 4
Setting Criteria 7
Brainstorming Solutions 7
Analyzing Solutions 9
Implementing the Solution 10
Conclusion 12
Works Cited 13
Appendices
Appendix 1: Team Contract 14
Appendix 2: Comparison Chart 15
Appendix 3: Participation Points 16
 Executive Summary
This project required that our group met the wishes/beliefs of parents, in how
their pre-teen children should be taught sexual education. There were many different
requests, but none were similar to each other (comprehensive, abstinence, and no
sexual education). This meant we, as a group, needed to brainstorm abstract ways in
how we could fulfill the wishes of these parents while still meeting the needed criteria in
finding the best possible solution.

As a team, we first began by illustrating the problem, by laying out the wishes of
the parents and what they wanted for their children, while making up multiple scenarios
without solving the problem immediately. We also created a written problem question to
help establish what the final solution would need to solve; that way our group wouldnt
go off topic. Then after making a list of ideas, we then decided to create the criteria that
was needed in finding the best possible solution. The criteria would have points that
would match with the values of Utah state laws (with sexual education), having a budget
between $0-$100, taught adequate information, met the requests of parents,
appropriate for the audience, and had committee approval. To scale this accurately
along our table, our group each needed to provide research/resources to know what
scenario would fit best with each criteria.

Once our group created an adequate list of ideas, we continued by scaling the
various solutions with the needed criteria in a chart. Based off of the results in how each
scenario scaled on our chart, we then picked the best solution with the highest score (a
higher score meant there was a better chance in appealing to all parties). Having
provided research on sexual education and federal/state laws, to help make our
scenarios, it was easy to find that a majority of our scenarios were to par with our
criteria. However, the solution that ranked best with our criteria was the idea of creating
a website that involved parents participation, as well as the child. Having found our
solution our group found it easy to implement it.

Our solution was to create a website that the parents could first choose what they
wanted their child to learn, and then have the parent and child watch the modified
education together. The sexual education would involve thorough explanations through
quizzes, videos, and animations. This solution was the best idea; not only because it
met the criteria, but it also was private within the safety of the home, involved both
parent and child, easy and effective, provided accurate information to whatever the
parent wanted their child to learn, and never excluded any of the parents wishes.
 Project Description

We are a group of parents whose children are attending Whispering Pines, a

private junior high school. The school has no affiliation to any church. Its students come
from various religious, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds. The school
administrators are in the process of redesigning the current old-fashioned sex-ed.
program. They recently surveyed all the parents in order to understand their views
about sex education. They found a three-way split.

Approximately 1/3 of the parents would like a comprehensive course that covers
physiological, medical, and psychological aspects of sex education in depth. Another
1/3 of the parents are pushing hard for an "abstinence-only" program. A final 1/3 of the
parents do not want their children to have any sex education at school; they feel it is
better handled by the students' churches and/or families.

The administrators have asked us to serve as an advisory committee whose task

is to recommend the direction the school should take as they develop the new course.
You have been asked to consider all parents' views in your recommendations.

We are Group 1, a task group comprised of four students in COMM 1010. Our
assignment was to come up with a solution in where the requests of all parents were
being met. 1/3 of the parents would like their children to learn about the physiological,
medical, and psychological aspects of sex education. Another 1/3 of the parents want
an "abstinence-only" program. A final 1/3 of the parents do not want their children to
have any sex education at school. Our group met four times and discussed each
method and solutions we could apply to meet all the requests. We encouraged critical
thinking and participation of every member.

Its important to find a solution to this problem, so that all parents are happy with
what their children are learning. In the state of Utah there is some requirements when
doing sex ed programs. We need to make sure that not only the parents are happy with
the information their children are learning, but that it is legal in the state of Utah. Of all
the possible solutions we proposed, creating a website for the parent and the children is
the best solution. Creating the website will let parents view it first and see what
information they would like their children to access.
 Methods
Our group began by preparing a Team Contract which listed our group norms
and roles (see Appendix 1). We then applied creative thinking skills to solve our sex
education problem. We will describe below our methods and findings for each step.
After we completed our report, we assigned participation points to each member, based
on the quality of their contributions to the project (see Appendix 2).

Part I: Problem Question

Stating our problem as an open-ended question (COMM 1010 WebCT page,
2010) will help us not be tempted to begin with just one specific solution.
Our group agreed that our key problem was: "What would be the best approach to sex
education at Whispering Pines Junior High?
Part II: Analysis of the Problem
Before we ever start to suggest solutions, its important to understand the
problem completely. We need to make sure we meet all of the criteria within the
problem in order to respect all of the parents requests.
As we broke down the situation we considered its characteristics, stakeholders in
the problem (people who might be affected), the history of the problem, and policies that
might affect the problem or our solutions.

A. Characteristics
1. Positive Aspects:
We could offer a course that covers physiological, medical, and psychological aspects
of sex education in depth.
Offering an abstinence education for a separate class
2.Negative Aspects:
The school not having enough funding for the program and
Parents not agreeing to the curriculum.

B. Stakeholders
1. Students:
The students are the ones who are going to learning the criteria in the sex education
program. We need to make sure that all of the information within the program is correct
and age appropriate.
2. Parents:
The parents are legally responsible for their children and have a large say in what they
want their children to learn about. According to the survey, that the school gave out,
of the parents dont want their children to learn about anything related to sex ed at
school, only want the kids to taught abstinence-only, and the last would like their
kids to learn everything about sex education in depth. .
3. The Committee:
Utah law says that the Human Sexuality Instructional Materials Committee must
approve of any resources or guest speakers. We need to make sure that our material
for the program is up to their standards (Kaufman, Jodi).

C. History or Background
In the 1960, sexual education in schools began. It taught the values of abstinence in
any sort of pleasure and the fear of STDs. In the 1980s, schools then began to teach
the idea of sexual health and contraceptives, birth control. They found there was a huge
decline in teens as a result of the proper education about safe sex. However, the
abstinence only way of teaching, does not show the same results; as stated by Hall
(2011, Oct 14). Although, it is all within the choice and accountability with the teens
themselves. Its possible that teens who experience more frequent education on the
subject, are more prone to straying away from the action itself. Therefore, theres no
way to judge who it helps and who it doesnt, but from what studies have shown, sex
education is effective.

D. Policies/Politics
1. Policies/Politics:
In Utah, it is required that all schools must teach sex education from anywhere between
8th through 12th grade. It should be taken in a health class. There is only certain
information that is allowed to be taught. It is prohibited to support contraception and
sexual activity outside of marriage. You can teach information about the human
reproduction system, all methods to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually
transmitted diseases and infections ( including HIV and Aids) and sexual or physical
violence. A Utah Rep. Bill Wright encouraged that you include a lesson on friendship,
dating, love, and the consequences of sex outside of marriage and how to say no to
sex.

E. Resources Available to us as we attempt to find a solution

One good resource we can use is our textbook for the class, page 368. It talks about
how to give a good information based presentation. I, also, found a very good website
from Utah Human Sexuality Instructions which is included in the Health Education Core
Curriculum. We dont want to spend too much money because there are a lot of free
information websites that are readily available. We chose our top four
solutions/resources out there so we will try to come up with an answer as cheap as
possible, but still meet all of the criteria
Part III: Criteria
Its also important to set criteria for evaluating our solutions before we ever start
thinking of solutions. That way, we wont be tempted to set criteria that favor our favorite
solution. We will use the criteria in Step V when we evaluate our proposed solutions.
We began by describing our general goal; then we suggested specific criteria. Several
of these criteria are based on information weve learned in this class.
A. General Goal
Our general goal is to end up with a solution in which the students get the proper
education about sex, as seen fit by their parents.
B. Specific Criteria (in order of importance)
The best solution will:
1. Apply principles of effective communication that we are learning in the class.
2. Be achievable within our four week time frame.
3. Cost less than $0-100 .
4. Meet the request of all parents.
5. Properly educate the kids.
6. Include sufficient funding
7. Make sure its age appropriate.
8. Teach it appropriately and clear so there is no confusion.
9. Offer more resources

Part IV: Brainstorm possible solutions

Our groups next step was to brainstorm possible solutions. Brainstorming
required us to contribute as many ideas as we could think of, good or bad. We did not
over think any ideas during brainstorming, because we did not want to discourage
creativity. We just wrote down everything we could think of. This part of the process was
a lot of fun, even our Professor joined in a little.
Below weve listed most of the ideas we came up with:
A. Teaching in 3 different classrooms to meet each parent-group request
B. Create a website with multiple tabs for parents to choose from, so the parent can
control what their child is learning in a, potentially, more comfortable environment
C. Provide pamphlets or a type of brochure for the parents with key points on what to
teach their child
D. Provide other resources of sex education, Planned Parenthood
E. Have a guest speaker, a health professional, come and talk to the class
F. Create a waiver/consent for parents to sign stating what they would like their student
to learn
G. Do not teach education at all, make the parents teach their children, if they choose to

Part V: Solution Analysis

It was finally time to analyze the solutions, based on the criteria we came up with.
First we chose our top four solutions, we did this by looking at the brainstorming
solutions and eliminating any solutions that would not meet all criteria. Then, we
eliminated any solutions that all group members did not agree upon. Finally, we voted
on the remaining solutions to decide on our final solution
A. Narrowed list of solutions
1. Website
2. Provide brochures for parents to teach kids
3. Guest Speaker
4. Teach three different classes per parent requests
B. Chart
We created a chart (shown in Appendix 2) so we could analyze each proposed solution
in terms of all criterion. We listed our top six solutions across the top, and each criterion
down the left side. For each criterion, we ranked each solution on a scale from 0 (does
not meet this criterion) to 10 (meets this criterion very well.) We then totaled up all the
points to get an idea of which solution might best fit our criteria.

C. This solution excels over others because:

a. It will meet the requests of the parents based on the survey given to them
b. Parents can be more involved in their childs education
c. Students may feel more comfortable when it comes to asking questions because they
are not with their friends or in a large group

D. Possible Negative Consequences

We next considered possible contingencies for our proposed solution.
1.Child does not have computer at home:
Not every family is fortunate to have a personal computer at home and with our solution
being an online class, that would be hard for some students. A possible solution to this
problem would be, have the parent talk to the teacher of the health class or the principle
of the school to set up some days where the parent and child could a computer at the
school.
2.The website crashes:
There is always a possibility that the website could crash and/or stop working. This
could be due to the server crashing or possibly the students home internet stops
working. To combat this problem, we will make the due date, for this program to be
complete, a couple months after given instruction to start.
 3.Committee does not approve:
If the Human Sexuality Instructional Materials Committee does not approve of the
material on our website, we will have to revise it to their standards. This could push
back the date in which the students would be able to access the website.

Part VI: Implementation of Solution

After choosing our solution, we set up a plan for implementing it.

1. First, we will create a webpage that will require a username and password to login to.
The website will contain different tabs like: Abstinence-Only, Full Education and
some other helpful tabs.
2. We will need to test the webpage on multiple servers so make sure it will work
properly.
3.Next, we will need to get the committee to approve of the material on the website, if
they do not approve, we will make changes according to their suggestions.
3. We need to get the student the information they need in order for them to log onto the
webpage, each student will have a different username and password, unless the
students parents have stated that they do not want their child or children participating in
this sex education program.

Conclusion

Our team of four classmates in Communication 1010 decided to find adequate

way to help the school administrators change the process of redesigning the current
old-fashioned sex ed program. Our group had to brainstormed ideas, establish the
criteria to assure we are meeting the wishes of the parents and requirements of the
school board/committee and the state of Utah. Our group worked well together, we
defined roles and responsibilities, communicated often using facebook messenger and
google docs, and thoroughly discussed each issue throughout every section of this
assignment. During our solution analysis we decided creating a website would be the
best solution .The website offers flexibility, its economical and it can be controlled by the
parents. Ultimately based on many of these positive aspects we determined that a
website offers the most universal convenience for this problem and is the best choice
based on the data we received.
 Works Cited

Adler, R. & Elmhorst, J. (2010). Communicating at Work (10e). New York: McGraw-
Hill. WebCT pages to accompany COMM 1010: Elements of Effective
Communication. (2010). Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City,
UT. Available at www.slcc.edu.

Kaufman, Jodi. Utah Human Sexuality Instruction: Frequently Asked Questions. Utah
State Board of Education, 0ADAD,
www.schools.utah.gov/file/c8660182-b598-4297-ab47-144db62961ff.

Sex education in the United States. Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Oct. 2017,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_education_in_the_United_States.

Stanger-Hall, Kathrin F., and David W. Hall. Abstinence-Only Education and Teen
Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education in the
U.S. PLoS ONE, Public Library of Science, 2011,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3194801/.
 Appendix 1: Group 1 Team Contract

Class: COMM 1010-423

Semester: Fall 2017
Date created: November 22, 2017

Brock Alikia, (717) 962-5728 Alikiabrock@gmail.com

Lopez Carmen, (801) 664-5760 Lopez.karmen41@gmail.com
McDougald Madison, (801) 673-0565 Madisonmcdougald@gmail.com
Scruggs Jensen, (801) 831-1989 Jmcclain1998@gmail.com

Relational norms:
1. We commit to putting group goals above personal goals, so we will each MAKE the
time to participate fully in each step of this project.
2. We will be empathetic to others personal lives, and help eachother out if needed.
3. We will each respect each other's opinions.
Task norms:
1. If we have to miss a meeting, we will let all members know preferably one day prior or
before class.
2. Be physically present at all meetings, but if we do miss one, we will complete the
work needed that day.
3. We will come on time to all meetings.

Relational roles:

1. Participation Encourager - Jensen,Madison

2. Time Keeper - Alika, Carmen

3. Leader - Madison, Jensen

Task roles:

1. Harmonizer - Carmen, Alikia

2. Empathetic - Madison, Jensen

3. Facilitator - Carmen,Madison

4. Devils Advocate - Jensen, Alikia

 Appendix 2: Solution Analysis Chart

Analysis of Potential Solutions Based on Criteria

Website Waiver Parents Dont Guest Provide

teach teach at all speaker Resources
Taught 10 7 5 0 10 10
what is
needed
Cost 8 4 6 10 5 8

Meet all 10 10 10 2 8 10
parents
request
Age 10 10 10 3 10 10
appropriat
e
Committee 8 10 4 0 10 7
approval

Total Point 46 41 35 15 43 45
 Appendix 3: Group 1 Member Participation Points
At our last meeting, we assigned participation points to each group member. We show
here our list of points and reasons.

Madison McDougald - 10 Points

Madison was very good at being the leader. She always started all the conversations.
She new what to say and how to word all of our work. She was knowledgable about the
project and our topic. She always tried to find all the solutions to our problem. She
would help write the grids and make sure they were complete before turning them in.
She was on time to all meetings and was ready to begin. She did the executive
summary and the work cited for the final paper.

Jensen Scruggs - 10 Points

Jensen was always prepared when I entered the room. She was ready to give her
opinions and make sure everyone had a say in whatever it was that we were
discussing. She attended every meeting and was always on time. She always made
sure that the tasks we had were finished by the due date. She always had her text book
with her so we can use it while working on this project. She always gave her honest
opinion and would let us know if she didnt agree with our solutions. She did the title
page and added all of our methods to the final paper.

Alikia Brock 10 Points

Alikia attended every meeting even though she had just gotten her tonsils removed and
couldnt participate fully during the first meeting but she did her best and gave all her
thoughts. She always let us know if she was going to be late which was very helpful.
She made sure there was enough time and that we got everything done before each
meeting ended. She listened to everyone's opinions and added input to the group. She
was in charge of doing the table of contents and the conclusion. Although the
conclusion was difficult to do because we didnt have all of our final thoughts, she still
did great at putting it together.

Carmen Lopez -10 Points

She attended all meetings as well. She was always on time and always had her laptop
with her to use it for the grids. She gave her opinions on the solutions she thought were
best.She turned in all of our grids to the professor. She made sure that everyone had
done their part and gave it to her so she could turn it in. She was always willing to send
us the grids, since they were on her computer. She did the project description and the
appendices A & B.