Parents opposed to the classes at Clearview Regional High School, in Mullica Hill, say that kids shouldn't be instructing kids about sex and that the elective course doesn't go far enough in stressing abstinence.

Some have accused the school of being deceptive about what is taught in the New Jersey Teen Prevention Education Program, known as Teen PEP. And they contend that public money has been misspent on the curriculum, developed with help from state health officials and taught since 1994.

School district administrators say misinformation has fueled the firestorm, which began last month and is expected to continue at a Feb. 28 school board meeting. They say New Jersey law requires them to teach a comprehensive class that addresses abstinence, safe sex, dating violence, HIV-AIDS, and how alcohol and drugs affect sexual decision-making - a fact confirmed by the state health department.

Six students have withdrawn from the coeducational program, in which faculty-supervised juniors and seniors conduct a series of five seminars attended by a total of 125 freshmen.

"This is a few parents making a lot of noise," said Diane Cummins, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in the Clearview Regional School District, where Teen PEP began without controversy last year.

What's happening in this Gloucester County town of new homes and farm fields 25 miles south of Camden is part of a nationwide increase in conflicts over sex-ed courses, experts say.

Last year, parents sparred publicly over such classes in 244 cases, up from 204 in 2006, according to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, a nonpartisan, nonprofit sexual-education agency. In 1998, there were 140 cases.

Clashes leveled off as communities accepted sex-ed programs limited to teaching abstinence until marriage and about the failure rates of contraception - an approach required since 1998 of schools that accept Title V federal funding.

In recent years, however, advocates for comprehensive sexual education have fought the narrowly tailored courses, on which the Bush administration intends to spend $141 million this year.

States have increasingly refused Title V money - Arizona last month became the 16th to do so - and are using alternate funding to develop and teach their own curriculums.

New Jersey has never accepted Title V money, and had avoided becoming much of a battleground until recently. Pennsylvania has alternately turned down and taken federal funding; educators in the state are seeking clarification concerning possible changes to their sex-ed courses.

At Clearview, those who oppose Teen PEP are not from a single camp. Some parents object to it on religious or moral grounds; others consider themselves more moderate. The complaint they share is that they were not adequately informed that their children would be taught by students.

"Do you want a 16-year-old boy teaching your 14-year-old daughter how to put on a condom by using a banana?" asked Lisa Westermann, whose son said the course had made him uncomfortable.