Sex Ed Measure Dies in Texas House

[Why Syzygy]

http://tfnblog.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/sex-ed-measure-dies-in-texas-house/

Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller decried today’s failure by the Texas House to require that public schools teach only medically accurate information in sex education classes.

An amendment requiring that information in sex ed classes be medically accurate was blocked by a point of order claiming that the measure was not germane to Senate Bill 283. Yet SB 283 sets meeting and reporting requirements for School Health Advisory Councils, which advise local school boards and administrators on health education instruction, including sex education. Moreover, the House had just unanimously passed an amendment to the same bill requiring that districts notify parents about the content of sex education instruction in their schools.

“It’s absurd for lawmakers to hide behind parliamentary tactics so they can avoid requiring that students get medically accurate information in their sex education classes,” Miller said. “No wonder a teenager gets pregnant every 10 minutes in Texas. Grownups in the Texas House are scared to even talk about how to prevent it.”

Texas ranks third in the nation in teen births and first in multiple births to teens. The Texas Department of State Health Services reports that a teen in Texas gets pregnant every 10 minutes.

The point of order came after an intense three-day campaign by opponents of the “medically accurate” amendment who instead support abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. Abstinence-only supporters falsely claimed that the amendment would “outlaw abstinence-only ed,” “censor information” about contraceptive failure rates, and “promote recreational and gay sex.”

:eyes:

[onestepforward]

1. I just don't get it.

I went to public school in the 70s & 80s in Amarillo and I was taught medically accurate sex education along with evolution in science. As far as I can remember, there wasn't this clash between education and religion. School was for facts and church was for God. By not teaching kids the facts, they are hugely cheating them of their education, putting them behind and perhaps totally altering their lives forever with a teen pregnancy.

[Why Syzygy]

2. We didn't have any

sex ed in the years before that. We had "health" classes, but I don't remember anything about reproduction being mentioned.

When I was a pre-teen, and had no clue about the 'facts', a couple of kids in our church got pregnant, and married. My mom, who never told me a damn truthful thing, just gave the (lame) explanation that 'those kids just didn't believe what they were taught in biology'!

I don't get it either. Unless these so-called 'adults' want to think that if kids have sex, at least THEY didn't tell them about it. It's very discouraging to live among such immature people of adult age.

[WolverineDG]

3. This is really ridiculous

Just wtf is wrong with teaching teens how their bodies work? What really gets me is all the adults getting their panties in a twist about this were the very ones having sex & doing drugs when I was in high school.

dg