Pot calling the kettle black

I read Shawn Vestal’s column about the need for science-based sex education in our public schools (“Schools shouldn’t tiptoe on sex ed,” Feb. 2) and found no basis for condemning it as arrogant, bigoted, a “hit piece,” sanctimonious, or deceptive, as Alice Galeotti charges in her letter to the editor (“One-sided Vestal,” Feb. 18). He simply, clearly and forcefully proposes that a systematic, knowledge-based and age-appropriate program be instituted locally in order to try to ameliorate the statistically dreadful incidences of teen sex, pregnancy and disease.

While nowhere does he recommend that parents should not responsibly undertake the moral instruction of their children, the sociological facts indicate that reliance on that mode of education is proving unreliable and inadequate.

Galeotti’s declaration that public schools should only be concerned with imparting “academic skills” is contrary to the historic role of education for citizenship and life enhancement in our democracy. Of course, she has a right to home school her own children or enroll them in a private school consistent with her narrow and partisan views. But please do not try to obstruct reasonable and well-intentioned efforts to help by others by means of ad hominum smears and distortions under a presumption of “godliness.” Talk about “sanctimonious”!

Peter Grossman

Spokane