VIDEO> Sex Education issue

SPOKANE VALLEY -- A new Washington State law requires schools not only teach 12 and 13-year old children about condoms, but also how to use them.

Condom use is already taught in sex education courses but the key phrase is that the state now wants to teach students “how” to use them, and that has some school officials looking for a way around the new rules.

“Check expiration date.”

“Carefully open the condom wrapper.”

“Roll the condom down.”

That's just some of the language kids could hear in their sex education classes this year because of a new state law, and some parents say they're fine with it.

KREM.com

New law requires schools to teach students "how" to use condoms.

"I think it's a good idea if kids are going to have sex they should know how to use condoms," parent Kelly Parker said.

Some school districts aren't fond of the idea at all.

"Some of its age appropriate it is for 8th graders and 9th graders,” said Central Valley School Board President Tom Dingus.  "Does it need to be that graphic that explicit at that young of an age?"

Dingus says his board members are trying to figure out a way to keep sex ed classes as is.

"It would be my assumption that they're going to remove the condom lesson from the curriculum,” he said.

But the state says not so fast. Not teaching kids how to use a condom would be breaking the law and some say it's a lesson that needs to be taught somewhere if it's not being taught at home.

"If your parents aren't involved then I think they need to be learning it in public school and I don't think 8th grade is too young,” parent Lisa Ressa said.

Statistics from the Spokane Regional Health District seem to back that up.

The most recent statistics available are from 2006.  In that year there were 839 teen pregnancies and 825 of those were girls between ages of 15-19, and 10 babies were born to girls under 14.

The school board is getting legal counseling on how to work around the requirement and still teach a balance of abstinence and prevention.