By Nicole Breskin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CHELSEA — A local public middle school slated to move into a former Catholic school building will be prohibited from conducting sex education courses at its new location due to the site’s affiliation with the Catholic church.
Under the latest plan for Chelsea’s Clinton School for Writers and Artists, the school is set to move into the St. Michael’s Academy on West 33rd Street as part of a $11.2-million lease agreement drawn up with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, which owns the building.
Currently, Manhattan public school students must take at least six state- and city-mandated HIV/AIDS education courses in middle and high school.
But the Department of Education said the Clinton School would be banned from providing its standard sex-ed curriculum at the new location due to stipulations in the department’s deal with the Archdiocese.
Clinton School students will instead be forced to travel back to their old building, P.S. 11 at 320 W. 21st St., to take any sex-ed courses.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
According to their website, “The Mission of the [Archdiocese's] Department of Education is to bear witness to Jesus Christ through the education, religious formation and spiritual development of the people of God particularly through parishes, schools and institutes of higher learning.”
The space at St. Michael’s is currently occupied by an outgoing, 136-year-old all-girls high school set to close at the end of this school year.
The school does not follow any mandated sex education curriculum because it is privately owned and operated.
Clinton School parents are not necessarily pleased their kids will have to travel for their sex education. But they nonetheless believe the move is better than a previous plan that would have had the middle school move into the P.S. 33 elementary school building in Chelsea, which would have displaced a special-needs school already located there.
“It’s not a deal breaker,” said Clinton School parent coordinator Cindy O’Neill, of the students travelling for sex-ed classes. “It’s not ideal, but at least the space is acceptable.”
A revised option would have relocated the Clinton School to the American Sign Language and English Secondary School, a move educators and parents felt could harm another special-needs population.
The Panel for Education Policy will vote on the new plan at a June 22 meeting.
