Local education officials took the blame Monday night for allowing a full-page ad opposing abortion to be sent home with children inside a directory with information concerning Sioux Falls public schools.
"As a board, we failed to anticipate all of the possible outcomes on the sale of advertising in partnerships that are viewed as district publications," said Darin Daby, the school board president.
He spoke at the start of a board meeting that 40 people attended, including five who addressed the board concerning the ad.
"We would ... like to apologize for this lapse. We will do better work in the future," Daby said.
Daby asked administrators to recommend a way to prevent the situation from reoccurring. He gave no timetable for more discussion.
Daby's statement capped a week in which schools handed out copies of a directory published by the Sioux Falls Shopping News in keeping with a practice in place since 1993.
This year's directory has 88 pages and about 100 ads, including a full-page ad from the Alpha Center saying "abortion hurts women" and offering help for those facing such a decision. When complaints began to surface last week, school officials first noted that the Shopping News, and not the district, was responsible for the content of all ads.
Daby commented Thursday that he didn't think the district had done anything wrong, but Monday he revised that position to accept blame.
In an interview after Monday night's meeting, he said he thought about the issue over the weekend and talked with each of the four board members individually by telephone to develop a consensus. The discussion was not by conference call or e-mail, he said.
Two who addressed the board said the board was right to apologize. Three others were sorry to hear it because they said there was nothing wrong with the ad.
"I was a 15-year-old faced with an abortion and I needed that kind of help," Leah Anderson told the board. She said he had two abortions, one after being raped as a teenager and another when she was in her 20s. She said she would have appreciated knowing about counseling help.
"This is a country where you should be able to run an advertisement," she said.
Kimberly Martinez, executive director for the Alpha Center, said her agency's ad did not tell readers about the upcoming abortion ban on the fall ballot or tell them how to vote. Instead it was directed toward parents of students who might want counseling help. She said two women had contacted her agency for help since the directory came out.
Casey Murschel, director of Naral Pro-Choice South Dakota, commended the board for the apology.
"Sometimes you can't control what happens, but you can always control your response," she said.
Murschel took issue with comments last week that school officials bore no responsibility because it was not the publisher of the directory. She recalled her days as a PTA volunteer, saying that all school handouts had to pass scrupulous review by district officials before they were sent home with students.
"It wasn't just an ad, and it isn't the way we've always done it," she said.
Daby thanked the Shopping News in his statement.
After the meeting, he said he couldn't predict one way or the other whether the directory will continue or if the board will insist on a procedure to screen advertising content.
"We'll evaluate that," he said.
He said he didn't mean to imply in thanking the Shopping News for its long service that the relationship would be coming to an end.
He said he gave his statement before the public testimony to clear up what he saw as the board's responsibility.
"I apologized for the fact the board allowed a gap in policy to exist," he said.
Reach reporter Jon Walker at 331-2206 or 800-530-6397.
