A health textbook that talks about masturbation, foreplay and erotic touch, among other sexual education topics, will stay even though some parents are objecting to it on the grounds it's inappropriate for their ninth-grade children.

According to the Contra Costa Times, the Fremont, CA, school board voted to purchase copies of Your Health Today after an extensive review process that included input from teachers and parents, said school board President Lara Calvert-York. It was chosen over six other books under consideration and the district has no plans to pull it from classrooms, she said.

But a petition on the website Care2 still has over 1,500 online signatures calling for the book's removal.

Teri Topham, whose daughter is going into ninth grade in Fremont and who teaches high school at a Fremont charter school, objected to the book's content.

"I flipped through it and saw sections that mentioned bondage with ropes and handcuffs," Topham told Contra Costa Times. "Not only does it have material that is too explicit and inappropriate, it doesn't meet their need for their ages. I am astounded the health teachers and school board said, 'yes, this is the best book we could find.'"

Fremont parent Becky Bruno disagreed.

"I was expecting to see explicit pictures, expecting controversial information, and I didn't find that in the book," Bruno said in the article. "Yes, there is a section on sexual health, but the pictures are drawings of anatomy and would be the same thing [students] were exposed to in elementary and middle school. I didn't see anything that would be categorized as pornography, and that's what some of the parents are saying."

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Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor