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I did read the transcript. It did mangle the English language didn’t it? Two comments.
1. If I were a young man and was told condom use caused erection problems I probably wouldn’t use one. I think that was a personal problem for the speaker not for everyone.
2. If I were a young woman and my boy friend wanted to have sex but didn’t love me I may choose masturbation. Without the feeling of love for someone sex is masturbation. Why risk pregnancy and STD’s, just get out your vibrator.

As a mother who has a fifteen year old son in another Boulder Valley High School, I am saddened by the lack of leadership shown here by the School Faculty, Board, and Panel. It is also very disturbing to find out that these students were required to attend this assembly. There is no value in the defense that these students are involved with these types of behaviors anyway. As a Boulder County resident, I am deeply concerned about the state of affairs in this school district now. As taxpayers, are we being forced to pay good money for this panel to speak? What recourse do we have as responsible parents?

Thank you for exposing this. The message is "do what feels good to you" but one day it might not feel good anymore and it will be your own fault.

The panelists failed at even their most basic objective.....to come across as hip to their audience. They actually came across as buffoons.

As a Boulder High School student, I believe that I know more about this subject than anybody. I did not personally attend the conference so until now the only information I have had were a few out-of-context excerpts from Bill O'Reilly. In contrast to most people who have heard about this in the news, I put off making judgments until after I had read the full transcript (something that some of you should have done before posting). I can now say with certainty that the controversy over this is just ridiculous. This is high school. Students are going to experiment with sex and drugs, and you are not going to stop them by saying they are bad and feeding them a bunch of lies and exaggerations about how harmful they are. The best thing to do is to make sure we know the truth about these issues and how to make responsible decisions. The panelists were not advocating taking drugs and having sex, they were merely stating that it is possible to do these things responsibly. Anyone who has read the transcript knows that they did spend a great deal of time discussing what the negative consequences of these activities can be. Teenagers need to be educated on how to avoid these consequences if they are to engage in these activities, which they will. A huge problem stems from the fact that you do not want to treat us as adults. There is of course an age when you want to tell your kids not to have sex or do drugs. But we are old enough that continuing to shelter us from this kind of information will do more harm than good, and we need someone to speak candidly to us about these issues, which these panelists did. We are for the most part mature enough to handle it. That being said, students shouldn't have been required to attend if they felt uncomfortable and should have been able to do an alternate assignment instead. I also think that it would have been good to have one panelist who disagreed with the others, even if I personally agree with everything that was said. I am always disappointed when there is a lack of opposing viewpoints on these panels. Not only is it more interesting to have some sort of debate, you can also make the best possible decision when you have heard all sides of an issue. However, anyone who believes that the content of this discussion was inappropriate is completely mistaken. I am very glad to have the opportunity to attend the CWS every year. The fact that anyone would try to deny us this privilege based on what happened is just appalling. I urge you all to please consider this so that all students may have the best education possible, not just at Boulder High but throughout the country.

If I hadn't heard the actual sound clips, I truly would have had a hard time believing that the school I trust to educate my children would allow such garbage to be presented to 14-year-olds.

#16
You speak of censorship being un-American but what about the lack of freedom that students had when forced to attend the conference. That is crazy. As a school counselor and health educator I would be ashamed to have this panel at my school. I read the whole transcript and there is nothing worse than "responsible" "successful" adults using humor and off-comments to send a message that 'anything goes as long as you're safe and it's good for you'. There is more harm done in the name of 'safe sex and substance use' that could ever be determined. You may think that the student's heard the proper message the speakers were trying to send but anyone who works with kids knows that they pick out certain concepts and often misinterpret them. We have to be 100% clear with our kids and not even give any room for misunderstanding. Don't be naive but set the bar high for our kids - they may miss and we can be here to support them but at least we aren't lowering our standards and allowing them be hurt.

No. 10, the message I get from reading the transcript is that young people <i>can</i> be trusted to have complete information and have all their questions answered, and <i>can</i> be trusted to make responsible choices.

The alternative would be lecturing them and using fear to control their behavior. Instead, the panelists listened to them and treated them like who they are, thinking people who are going through the process of maturation. I applaud the school for this respectful and realistic approach.

While I agree the panel's "crude factor" was a bit high, don't devalue the entire discussion and miss this teachable moment. I would hope that as parents and educators we value the opinions and insights of others from which our kids are able to draw their own opinion. Too often, many high school kids will hear much worse but in situations where there isn't the educated insight the panelists offered. Good job BHS.

I read the entire transcript,and think these "experts" probably thought that they were helping children. However,it seemed to me that they were more desperate to prove themselves to be "cool", rather than to actually tell the truth.They tried to be accepted by the audience in a strange kind of reverse peer pressure. I felt for the one who shared that he wished he had done things differently to avoid the heartache of his unwise choices. Unfortunately, there was little else said to truly discourage that behavior or seriously address the actual consequences in the real world. The discussion encouraging casual sex and drug use was inappropriate. Interesting that while it is erroneously believed to be improper to express religous thought in taxpayer supported public schools, it seems to be encouraged to dismiss and mock those beliefs. The wisest and most mature of the statements came at the end from a young student who had the courage to stand up for her beliefs, state that the panel was one-sided, and request that her views be given a voice. It was respectful, intelligent and courageous. It is sad that those older in age, but not maturity, were not able to rise to her standards. Thank you, and God bless you.