Sex-ed bill to strip local control of content nears vote

By Evan Lips | November 17, 2015, 18:08 EST

Printed from: http://newbostonpost.com/2015/11/17/sex-ed-bill-to-strip-local-control-of-content-nears-vote/

Sex-ed literature abounds. (Photo courtesy of Flickr.com)

BOSTON – Conservative groups are voicing concerns over a sex-education bill that they say would strip control of course content from local authorities and impose state-mandated requirements if it passes into law. A full Senate vote on the measure is set for Wednesday.

While the proposal does not appear to force school districts to provide sex-ed to students, it would mandate new standards for those that already have such courses or that would create them in the future, according to language in the proposal. Opponents say the bill would require those high schools to teach underage girls how to obtain an abortion without the consent of their parents.

“The push-back from supporters of the bill is that it doesn’t mandate anything,” said Andrew Beckwith, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute. “But then why was the bill drafted in the first place?”

Currently, Massachusetts law does not require sex education in public schools, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research group in New York that promotes sexual health. It says 22 states mandate teaching sex-ed, and 20 of those require that it include information about the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, that leads to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Among states that require it, 19 have laws that say it must be medically, factually or technically accurate, though the definition of those terms varies, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. It says 35 states let parents keep their kids out of sex-ed classes.

The proposed Massachusetts measure to come before the Senate tomorrow calls for school districts that offer sex-ed to make sure the courses provide “medically accurate, age-appropriate” material by the start of classes next fall. It also lays out rules for parents who would keep their children out of the classes. The Senate Ways and Means Committee recommended passage of the bill earlier.

Age-appropriate topics, according to the bill, dubbed “An Act Relative to Healthy Youth,” are defined as “messages and teaching methods suitable to particular ages or age groups of children and adolescents, based on developing cognitive, emotional and behavioral capacity typical for the age or age group.”

Several organizations, including Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts, a health care and abortion provider, and NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, an advocacy group, support passage of the proposal.

The bill would provide for “a real opportunity to ensure young people are able to take control of their health, and combat issues like teen dating violence and sexual assault,” Megan Amundson, NARAL’s Massachusetts executive director, said in an email, according to the State House News Service. She said backers of the bill will need an “all hands on deck” effort to ensure it passes the Senate.

Beckwith objects to what he said the state considers to be “age-appropriate,” including information about prophylactic devices to protect 12-year-olds from sexually-transmitted diseases during oral sex.

“This bill would also require schools to teach high-school girls how to get an abortion without parental consent,” Beckwith said in a statement about the proposal released Monday. “And that is despite the fact that many of those students would be under the legal age of consent for sex in the first place.”

Beckwith pointed to curriculum approved by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s AIDS Advisory Panel, manuals and teaching guides produced by Planned Parenthood and other organizations, which the state has endorsed for sexual health classes. The state lists Planned Parenthood’s “Get Real: Comprehensive Sex Education That Works” as “recommended.”

Beckwith pointed to a series of fill-in-the-blank questions featured in the Planned Parenthood manual, including one that quizzes students about the health benefits of using prophylactics during oral sex.

“That’s the curricula,” Beckwith said. “Currently the elected school committee in my town has control over what is taught.

“Why get rid of local control on something that’s so sensitive?”

The Senate convenes Wednesday at 11 a.m.

Reach Evan Lips by emailing him at @evanmlips.

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Sex-ed bill to strip local control of content nears vote

Fulton schools changing sex-ed coursework, others to follow

Metro Atlanta school districts are considering changes to a controversial, abstinence-centered sex education curriculum, which some health care advocates and parents argue doesn’t teach teens how to protect themselves from pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Fulton school board members are taking up the “Choosing the Best” curriculum Tuesday, while Gwinnett’s board is expected to take it up later this year or by spring, school officials say. Cobb schools also use the curriculum, as do nearly half of all school systems in Georgia.

Propopsed changes include new statistics, photos, videos and other visual aides emphasizing why students should wait until they’re married to have sex.

The curriculum’s critics say it doesn’t provide information about how to use contraceptives. Proponents of abstinence-centered sex ed believe students should be getting the message that no sex until marriage is the only completely safe way to avoid pregnancy and AIDS/HIV.

In Georgia, parents who don’t want their kids to get sex ed can opt them out, though the majority want them to get sex ed, according to surveys. Metro school leaders say very few parents opt their children out of sex ed courses.

Among the most debated culture-war issues, the question of abstinence-based versus more comprehensive sex-ed curriculums gained steam with the onset of AIDS/HIV and a big push by conservative federal leaders to pour funds into programs that emphasized abstinence. Federal officials have since pulled back on such funding, funneling more money into sex education with a broader scope.

Georgia law requires schools to cover human sexuality and HIV/AIDS prevention, and says “instruction shall emphasize abstinence from sexual activity until marriage and fidelity in marriage as important personal goals.” Schools can use abstinence-based or more comprehensive sex ed curriculums.

“In Fulton, we have an abstinence-centered approach and everything is geared toward … why you’d want to choose to not have sex,” said Tasha Guadalupe, health and physical education coordinator for Fulton schools, which adopted “Choosing the Best” in 2001. “It’s a risk-avoidance curriculum, so it’s explained why the things that can happen and why you’d choose not to want to have sex.”

Fulton school system leaders have not presented details of the proposed changes to “Choosing the Best” via the district’s website. Instead, print and other resources were displayed for public review at 13 schools and other sites across the district. Parents, teachers and others submitted input via surveys, though Fulton system representatives have not released those results.

Some health advocates have argued against “Choosing the Best” and other abstinence-centered curriculums, saying they convey inaccurate information, shame sexually active students or exclude those who come from families where parents are not married. “Choosing the Best” covers contraception, but does not advocate or demonstrate contraceptive use.

“There’s not a standard in how the policy (Georgia law) is implemented. And so it’s very hit or miss. It’s not terribly effective,” said Kim Nolte, president and CEO of Georgia Campaign for Adolescence Power and Potential, a group that promotes teen pregnancy prevention. “We know that our young people are being shortchanged.”

Because the Georgia law is broadly written, school officials can cover sex ed to varying degrees, with some doing the minimum or not covering the topic at all, advocates say.

“Some (school officials) might feel like they’re following the policy by gathering all the students up and putting them in an auditorium and teaching them for 45 minutes and it’s with a guest speaker,” Nolte said. “We see that often. And there’s a check next to the box, we gave them information about HIV. Or we gave them information about abstinence. That is not an effective way of getting the information out. It doesn’t build their knowledge or skill level.”

Atlanta-based “Choosing the Best” is one of the more popular abstinence-centered sex ed curriculum’s in the U.S. It’s used in 47 states, and since 1993 over 4 million students nationwide have completed the program, according to “Choosing the Best.”

Materials for “Choosing the Best” have been revised several times in recent years in response to input and criticisms, representatives say.

“If we find that the intended communication point of a lesson, activity, etc. has the potential to be misunderstood, we will revise it,” “Choosing the Best” said in a released statement. “Choosing the Best” … provides extensive information about decision-making, understanding healthy vs. unhealthy relationships, sexually transmitted diseases, avoiding sexual assault, sexual abuse, the impact of teen pregnancy on achieving future goals, issues with sexting and refusal skills.”

At most metro Atlanta schools, sex ed is covered in grades 6-12 during health courses that run one semester. Committees of teachers, students, parents and others recommend the type of sex ed curriculum to be used, and school board members vote on it.

Nearly a decade ago, a group of DeKalb County parents protested “Choosing the Best,” and the district dropped the curriculum. It now uses a sex ed program known as FLASH (Family Life and Sexual Health).

Allyson Gevertz, who has two children who have participated in the FLASH program in DeKalb schools, said she prefers the more comprehensive approach.

“It’s such a taboo topic for so many families that many kids, the only place they’re getting any education is at school on this,” Gevertz said. “If they’re not going to get it at home, they’ve got to get it from school. You don’t want to send them out into the world not armed to make those big decisions for themselves.”

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Georgia’s teen birthrate has declined in recent years, though it remains still one of the worst in the U.S. In 2013, a total of 273,105 babies were born to women aged 15–19 years in the U.S, for a live birth rate of 26.5 per 1,000 women in this age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Georgia, the rate was 30.5, near the bottom with other states in the southeast.

The national rate has declined in recent years, and while reasons for the declines are not clear, teens seem to be less sexually active, and sexually active teens seem to be using birth control than in previous years, according to the CDC.

Fewer teen births

Georgia’s teen birth rate has declined in recent years, though it remains still one of the worst in the U.S. In 2013, a total of 273,105 babies were born to women aged 15–19 years in the U.S, for a live birth rate of 26.5 per 1,000 women in this age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Georgia, the rate was 30.5, near the bottom with other states in the Southeast.

The national rate has declined in recent years, and while reasons for the declines are not clear, teens seem to be less sexually active, and sexually active teens seem to be using birth control than in previous years, according to the CDC.

Fulton schools changing sex-ed coursework, others to follow