DEARBORN — While some of city’s public school teachers have recently called for a more comprehensive sex education curriculum, some parents have expressed outrage over “explicit” lessons taught in class.

A local mother of a 15-year-old ninth grade student at Fordson High School, said her daughter and other classmates walked out of their health class after they were handed a quiz that tested her knowledge of safe sex habits.

The 13-question true or false quiz asked female students if “the chances of a female getting pregnant the first time she has sex are low” and if “douching after sex is proven to be effective in preventing pregnancy.”

The student said she was uncomfortable and shocked at the content of the course curriculum, but it wasn’t until the class was told to explain their answers to each question that she and her friends walked out.

A copy of the student’s answers showed an abashed and hesitant attitude toward the content. She also only completed the first five answers of the quiz.

The concerned mother said their family leans toward more traditional principles and reared her children to be sexually reserved. She said sex is a topic too “inappropriate” for a 15-year-old and that the family wanted to wait until their daughter was older to thoroughly explain its particulars.

“If they start asking in detail, they might wanna experiment,” she added.

A greater cause of the parents’ outrage was that they had no idea their children were taking the course.

Laurie Bechhofer, an HIV/STD education consultant for the Michigan Department of Education, said that state law requires parents and guardians to be notified in advance of sex education instruction. Parents have the right to opt their children out of that lesson, review the material or observe the classroom instruction.

The mother said she did not receive an opt out form, so she and other parents complained to the school’s administration. The class was halted until the opt forms were sent out.

She added that she had no knowledge that her son also took the class and would not have wanted him to attend.

The mother urged more transparency of sex ed course materials from the schools and suggested that content be discussed and approved at Parent-Teacher Association meetings before they are taught.

Nesrine Hussein, mother of another ninth grade girl at Fordson, said she feels her role as a mother was neglected by the school for not sending out forms for her to approve, allowing her 14-year-old daughter to learn the details about sex.

“I thought health class was about how to be clean, not how to be in bed,” Hussein said.

Hussein said her daughter is too young to learn about genitalia, condoms and pregnancy and that she wanted to wait until her daughter was 18 to give her lessons about sexual conduct.

She added that curiosity about sex stemming from taking the class could encourage students to engage in the behavior.

Ibrahim Mashhour, director of student services and district athletics at Dearborn Public Schools, said the only mishap that occurred was a failure for opt-out forms to reach parents. Mashhour also said that he was not aware that students were asked to explain in detail why they chose their answers on the true-false quiz.

Mashhour said the school district’s administration will investigate why the opt-out forms did not reach the parents. He added that teachers could be instructed to ask for students to return the forms with a “yes” or “no” box checked and signed by parents to clearly state if the student has consent to be in the class or not.

Mashhour said the schools will continue to educate students about sex and that the material discussed in class was age appropriate, as decided by a committee of parents, teachers and local clergy.

“They have to learn about these things,” Mashhour said.

He added that Hamid’s daughter got many of the answers wrong, another reason as to why teens her age should be taught sex ed.

In an unofficial anonymous survey sent by Mashhour to physical education teachers in the district, four teachers, in addition to one who spoke to The AANews, said they wished they could teach more comprehensive and detailed material about sexual hygiene and reproduction.

“I certainly think the unit is important; however I do firmly believe that more about reproduction, as well as personal hygiene, could be incorporated/covered,” a teacher wrote.

Another instructor wrote in an email, “I feel we are leaving out a good deal of information that the old program use to cover (things like sexual intercourse, the menstrual cycle, identification of body parts, explaining puberty, etc.).”