Sorry, Rep. Bob McDermott, but “Pono Choices” is not dead.

That’s the message the University of Hawaii is sending to the state representative in response to comments he made Wednesday applauding the Department of Education’s planned overhaul of the contentious middle-school sexual health program.

McDermott predicts that the program is all but defunct now that the department is requiring parents to proactively sign their children up for it. Before, Pono Choices was intended for all students in middle-school classrooms that adopted the curriculum; if parents didn’t approve, they had to opt their kids out of it.

Pono Choices

UH Center on Disability Studies

But Pono Choices is still alive and well, says UH, whose Center on Disability Studies developed and still owns the materials. Officials say they are reviewing the recent recommended changes and will make the adjustments necessary to keep it aligned with up-to-date research and age appropriateness to ensure the program is used next school  year.

The program is one of a handful of sex-ed courses approved by the DOE, but it’s the only one that uses Hawaiian culture to inform students about pregnancy and sexually-transmitted infection prevention, according to UH.

“Knowledge, attitudes and skills, pertinent to prevention, are supported with cultural referents,” a press release says.

Pono Choices first caused a stir last fall during the same-sex marriage debates, when critics cited it as proof that schools could indeed normalize homosexual activities and anal sex.

Pono Choices contains references to gay couples and, according to McDermott, treated the anus as if it’s a sex organ.

The DOE convened a working group to review the concerns and come up with recommendations on how to make Pono Choices more agreeable to all parents. The final report was released last Friday.

Among the 11 recommendations are requests that UH make certain changes to the contents, including that it increase information about the risks of anal sex and clarify that the anus isn’t a genital.

The changes are expected to be implemented by the end of next month, after which it will “be back in full use” by schools that choose to use it, according to UH.

Hawaii has the 10th highest rate of teen pregnancy in the country.