OxfordPress.com

Mason school officials would have preferred that a guest speaker — invited to primarily talk about drugs and alcohol — practiced a little more "abstinence" in his presentation last Thursday.

After Christian speaker Keith Deltano strayed from an agreed format in a seventh-grade assembly, Mason Middle School Principal Tonya McCall said she canceled a second assembly of eighth-graders that was to follow.

The 40-minute April 19 presentation, "Don't Be Stupid," was supposed to focus on the consequences of underage drug and alcohol use, McCall said, with a smaller portion focused on an abstinence-only message regarding sex. But the presentation went in the opposite direction, McCall said.

"I don't think it's bad to have a conversation about sex, and that's not why we stopped the conversation," McCall said. "(Keith Deltano) has a great message. My only concern was that's not what he was asked to do."

In an e-mail message sent to about 700 parents of seventh-graders, McCall explained: "I was concerned that some seventh-grade students may not quite have been comfortable with the content without a previous conversation with their parents or access to the curriculum which is covered in eighth-grade health."

Deltano, a former teacher from North Carolina who's booked all over the country for school presentations, said he regrets trying to mix the two topics in one presentation.

It was a matter of trying to honor both the school's wishes and the federal grant dollars that he is paid to talk about sexual abstinence, Deltano said.

"I really should have just said no," said Deltano, who has spoken at other nearby schools and is currently on a national tour. "I'm not going to agree to do that again."

Deltano said he received supportive feedback from some Mason parents after the seventh-grade assembly. To learn more about him, visit his Web site at virginityrocks.com.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4541 or rwilson@coxohio.com.