LYONS — The mother of an eighth-grader at Lyons Middle/Senior High School is concerned that presenters affiliated with a faith-based nonprofit are teaching a slanted view of reproductive health in her son’s sex-education class.

Candice Donovan of Lyons said she has pulled her son out of the sex-ed class after a letter went home to parents informing them that staff from Longmont’s Life Choices, which describes itself on its website as “a Christ-centered ministry,” would be leading presentations about reproductive health. Life Choices presented at the school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and the Boulder County AIDS Project is scheduled to present Monday.

“I pretty quickly got alarmed because it’s a very religiously oriented group,” she said. “They provide reproductive counseling services according to the principles of Jesus Christ.”

Donovan said she is concerned that the group does not teach students about all their options, including birth control and abortion.

Organizations that present to middle and high school classrooms about health and sexuality are first vetted by school district personnel, and their curricula have to adhere to the Colorado Department of Education’s comprehensive health standards, said district spokesman John Poynton.

Staff sometimes prefer to let groups outside the school present about sexuality to make students more comfortable, Poynton said, and in those cases, teachers can choose providers from the list of approved presenters.

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With the snowy Sangre de Cristo range as a backdrop, Roger Welles fly-fishes on the Arkansas River just east of Cotopaxi on Thursday. The temperature in nearby Canon City hit 75 degrees Thursday and Welles said he couldn’t pass up the chance to get on the river. He said he lives in Canon City and fishes the Arkansas year-round. Photo by MARK REIS, THE GAZETTE