Parents are outraged at a South Jersey high school. They're upset over a new sex education program they say crosses the line.

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The controversy is brewing at Clearview Regional High School in Harrison Township.

"Don't substitute your judgment for ours. It's not your right to raise our kids," one parent said.

Sex education in school is controversial but parents with freshmen at Clearview said a new program called "Teen Pep" brings the debate to new heights.

"It was over the line. They crossed the line about sex education," another parent said.

Clearview is one of 50 New Jersey schools using the curriculum from the Princeton Center for Leadership Training.

Parents are disturbed by discussions about masturbation and alternatives to sex. Juniors and seniors are taught in workshops and then asked to educate their freshmen peers on what they've learned.

While freshmen need permission slips to attend, parents argue peer educators are talking about the topics outside of class without parents' permission.

"I don't need my daughter getting her sex education from one of the junior or senior boys on Friday and Saturday night," Donald Coughlan said.

Claire Hollywood said she sees it differently. Her daughter is one of those peer educators.

"They see it on the computer. They see it in the magazine. If we can do it in a more educated way and something the children can relate to, it's better," Hollywood said.

The workshops also address abstinence and healthy relationships, program leader English teacher Michael Porter, said.

"We're being criticized on material that we never intended to bring into the program or haven't made a decision on yet," Porter said.

Porter said outraged parents have cherry picked topics from the curriculum the school may or may not use but admitted upcoming topics will contain material some parents call inappropriate, a move the school supports.

"This is sort of our metaphorical home and people in our house are engaging in some behaviors and we feel it's our responsibility to address ways for them to protect themselves against the behaviors," Assistant Superintendent Diane Cummins said.

As a result of this controversy, the school has agreed to create a committee of concerned parents and school members in favor of the curriculum to see if they can come to a compromise, but some parents said until then they want Teen Pep taken out of the school and a new curriculum decided upon.

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