Amendments to gutted sex education bill may be restored in House

"It’s a real fine line when you're teaching health. You don't want to cross the line what you can and cannot say," he said.

Burnside said he receives occasional telephone calls from parents regarding the district's abstinence-based curriculum.

"Some say 'Just don’t talk about it and it will go away.' Others say 'Why don’t you tell kids more so they're informed and they have the information they need?'"

Steve Asay, a father of a West High School student and who has served on school community councils in the Salt Lake School District for nearly 20 years, said the state's sex education curriculum hasn't been a front-burner issue in recent years.

As parents, he and his wife have had four children take part in West High's health class.

"We signed off on it because we have no problem with the way it's been taught," Asay said. "We've had three other kids who've gone through the class, and we felt comfortable with it."

Senate Minority Leader Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake, said he was "a little disappointed that we're having to rehash sex education, which has been working pretty well in the schools and still gives parents the ability to opt out of that if they so choose."

Wright said he wants to address concerns about local control of schools, but he is adamant about better controls over school curriculum.

"I'll have some other eyes look at it to see if we can have some consensus on what language actually means."

E-mail: marjorie@desnews.com