Judge: Abstinence-only curriculum is not sex ed
By Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle
California’s sex-education law prohibits school districts from indoctrinating students on the need to remain celibate before marriage or teaching them that abstinence is the only safe way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, a judge has ruled.
The decision by Fresno County Superior Court Judge Donald Black applies only to the 40,000-student Clovis Unified School District. But as the first ruling to interpret California’s 11-year-old law on sex education and disease prevention, it should put schools on notice that “young people need complete, accurate health information required by law,” said attorney Phyllida Burlingame of the American Civil Liberties Union, which took part in the suit.
“This is the first time that abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula have been found to be medically inaccurate,” Burlingame said Monday.
Thanks to this Judge for clear thinking and direction about Sex Ed. It’s about disease prevention and pregnancy protection education. Students need the facts and statistics about all the terrible sexually transmitted diseases that are out there and just saying “DON’T do it” doesn’t give them the info they need to make mature, informed choices about their bodies.
In reading the original article you would have though it was an article from 1968! Guess what goes around comes around.
This article got me thinking about condoms as a use for stopping births and spread of disease’s. After looking up condom failure rates I was shocked to find that 1 in 6 fail. This would lead me to conclude that it is a terrible way to stop diseases esp with youngsters that who in a rush are likely to have higher failure rates. Abstinence-only curriculum is the best way, though we all know that kids will still do it, I agree that HIV and other diseases should be taught. This ruling does not stop the schools from saying Abstinence is the best way, it just says that there are other means that also must be discussed.