The controversy unfolded on the last day of term one at St Francis Xavier College in Berwick, where year 9 students were called into the hall and told they could not leave until they had thrown a page of the textbook in the bin.

One side of the page asked students whether they believed in sex before marriage and what tips they would give a friend who was thinking of losing their virginity.

It also asked students when they thought it was appropriate to start having sex.

It included a photo of two men hugging and smiling, and listed different sexual preferences including heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality and asexuality.

"While categories help in discussing sexual identity, research suggests that sexuality occurs on a continuum and can be fluid for many people," the textbook said.

It also posed a number of questions about sexual relationships including "how much physical contact will I have?", "will I have sexual intercourse?" and "will I use protection?".

Some community members said the school's actions were discriminatory and sent a dreadful message to students.

"It was a medieval weak response, rather than an intelligent response," one person said.

"They might be gay, have friends who are gay or have unwed parents. I can't get over that an educational institute asked students to rip up an educational material."

Others pointed out that asking students to remove the page had drawn more attention to it.

Principal Vincent Feeney said students were asked to remove the page because it referred to issues that would be better handled in religious education classes.

He said the school had no concerns about the content that referred to sexuality. But they were concerned about three questions which referred to having sex for the first time.

"Young people do become sexually active in our society before marriage," he said.

"But we have an obligation to talk about relationships in terms of our values context, which is a Catholic context. We mediate this within an understanding about where young people are. If we had our time again we would do things differently."

He said the school was inclusive, and same-sex couples were allowed to attend its formal.

The content was created by publisher MacMillan as part of it service which lets teachers make customised workbooks. It included links to a mental health website which provided information about "losing your V plates".

It comes as debate continues to rage about the Safe Schools Coalition, an anti-bullying program which educates students about gender and sexual diversity.

After commissioning a review into the program, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull bowed down to conservative MPs last month and ruled that it would be restricted to high schools, with some of its content altered.

A handful of outraged St Francis Xavier College students refused to rip out the requested page. They tore out another page instead.