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Show A-9 The Park Record Wed/Thurs/Fri, January 11-13, 2017 Continued From A-8 Latino outreach Both said they are eager to build on the strides already being made. For instance, Sylvester, who is from Colombia, said she has watched over the last five years as more Hispanic students have joined her son on athletic teams. It’s an encouraging sign, but there is plenty of work still to do. “I’m really excited,” she said. “Including the Latino community in all of the activities we have access to in Park City is huge for me. … I want to make sure they know we are all in the same boat. The kids are all eligible for all the beautiful programs we have here. I’m really passionate about it.” Even more heartening is that the school district does not seem to be alone in its call for greater opportunity for Latino students, Esquivel said. Part of his job is to work with outside entities such as PC Unidos, the United Way and Holy Cross Ministries, and he said all of those groups feel a large sense of responsibility to address the issue. “We’re all coming together at the same time,” he said. “I’m very excited and very motivated. … I Blue Boar Inn & Restaurant WEDNESDAY NIGHT CHEF’S DINNER $29.95 for Three Courses Enchanting European Inn & Fine Dinning Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Served Daily Sunday Brunch BUBBA BROWN/PARK RECORD AAA FOUR DIAMOND AWARD, 2015 Inn & Restaurant The Park City School District recently hired Eric Esquivel as its Latino community relations specialist. He, along with Diana Sylvester, left, and Lauren Beheshti, are tasked with helping the district connect with Hispanic families and improve the education opportunities for Latino students. get out to these other groups, and they’re just as motivated, just as happy and eager to get out there and help. It’s a great time for Park City.” Forging relationships and open lines of communication with parents of Hispanic students will be among the most important undertakings for the advocacy team, Esquivel said. Many parents don’t know how to navigate the school system, which is a problem often exacerbated by a language barrier. It’s incumbent on the district to reach out and show those parents they belong in the school community and teach them how they can become involved in their children’s education. Showing parents the importance of being engaged in the school system would go a long way toward making Park City’s schools places of opportunity for all students, Esquivel said. “A lot of times they come here, and they see that we’re one of the most affluent communities in our country, and we have a very good agers has been a decadeslong debate involving parents, teachers, school districts and advocates with a variety of opinions. Some worry about giving too much information, others worry about sharing too little, and many parents fear that any conversation will plant ideas and push kids to try stuff or “take away their innocence,” said McCaffree, who also served on the board of directors of SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. This heated discussion has become its own culture war with labels for each side — abstinence education versus comprehensive sex ed — and has left in its wake an ideologically diverse curriculum patchwork in schools and communities across the country, reported the Deseret News. But it doesn’t have to be that way, experts say. In fact, relying on polarizing labels or perpetuating an “us versus them” mentality regarding sex ed may prevent a deeper discussion of what’s actually going on in the complicated lives of today’s youths and what can be done to help them. While the numbers of teens having sex is going down, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rates of sexually transmitted infections are at record-high levels, and sexual issues like sexting, sexual assault and revenge porn are omnipresent, leading experts to call for more unity, education and support for teens than ever before. Experts say the first step toward a productive, teen- focused discussion requires recognizing that sex ed programs across the ideological spectrum are working — for different kids, with different needs, in different areas — and that successful evidenced-based programs may be more alike than people think, as they focus on broadening the sex ed discussion and teaching realworld skills. “Many experienced people who have worked in the field realize there’s no one-size-fits-all answer,” said Leah Robin, lead health scientist in the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health. “You have to really take into account (the kids’) communities, cultural context, developmental stage — all of these things add up to the need for a variety of different approaches to help our youth make healthy decisions.” school district,” he said. “And I think they know that. So, for them, I think there’s a complete trust value that, ‘Well, they’re educating my kids.’ But they fail to see their role in it and that they need to be involved in it.” BEST OF STATE 2016 Best Northern European Fine Dining Best Bed & Breakfast Best Plated Brunch 1235 Warm Springs Road, Midway, Utah 435.654.1400 • www.theblueboarinn.com VISIT 2598LOWERLANDO.COM A right approach to sex ed? Middle ground hard to find on a contentious issue By SARA ISRAELSENHARTLEY Deseret News SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Each time health instructor Konstance McCaffree started her junior high unit on human sexuality, she would open it up to questions from the 15-yearold students. Shy and embarrassed about the “taboo” subject, they’d either stay quiet or protest that they’d heard it all before. So, she handed out 3x5 cards and asked them to write down their now-anonymous questions. “I kept every single one of those cards for years,” said McCaffree, a certified sexuality educator with more than 35 years of school-teaching experience. “I had hundreds and hundreds of those cards, in case anybody came back and said, ‘Why are you teaching this?’ (I could say), ‘Here’s the card. This is what kids are asking me.”‘ McCaffree’s students were always inquisitive, but one question came up over and over throughout her career, and remains a pertinent question today, she said. “How does someone get pregnant, or not get pregnant?” “That kind of question doesn’t get answered a lot,” she said. “The answer is ‘just don’t do it and you won’t get pregnant,’ instead of taking the time to explain it.” But the “right way” to explain sex and healthy sexuality to teen- Cutting through criticism But when neither side can even agree on what to call the other, it’s difficult to find the middle ground Robin describes. Previously called “abstinence only until marriage education,” one side teaches that avoiding all sexual interaction is the only 100-percent safe way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy, as well as heartbreak and rejection, and now prefers the term sexual-risk avoidance education. They refer to the other side as sexual-risk reduction education. “We don’t like the term ‘comprehensive sex education’ because it (projects) that it provides an even-handed approach that gives young people all the information to make healthy choices, when it fact it normalizes teen sex, and puts the emphasis on reducing the risk, rather than eliminating it,” said Valerie Huber, president and CEO of Ascend, formerly the National AbPlease see Sex ed, A-14 Just Reduced! $100,000 4 beds -- 6 baths 4 beds 6 baths -- @4,500 @4,500 sqft Single Family Make this Deer Valley Now offered at home your own! Motivated seller Make an Offer!! VALENTINA UDABE Realtor 435.901.1597 valentina@sterlingparkcity.com $1,499,000 NANCY TALLMAN 435.901.0659 nancy.tallman@sothebysrealty.com you care about your business. so do we. We offer you the solutions you need to reach your target audience. Our knowledgeable staff can help you choose the right advertising program to ensure your success. 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