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DA District Administration
New sex education initiatives sparking debate
Moves to revise sex ed programs in California, Arizona and Texas lead to parent protests
By Steven Blackburn
October 3, 2019
New debates about how and when sex education in schools should be
taught, and what topics should be covered, are emerging as states and
districts reconsider their sex ed curriculum.
In California, parents in Anaheim recently protested the passage
of California Healthy Youth Act this year, as reported by CBS Los
Angeles.
California’s new sex ed policy requires schools to provide comprhensive
sex ed at least once in high school and once in middle school,
including topics such as how to ward off HIV and other sexually
transmitted diseases, reports the Mountain Democrat.
Districts are allowed to offer age-appropriate sex education earlier if
they so choose. Previously, California educators had to teach HIV
prevention, but a broader curriculum of sex education in schools was
not mandatory.
In Arizona, the Tucson school board recently delayed action on a
proposed sex ed curriculum for grades 4 through 12 after parents
protested the move, as reported by KOLD News 13.
The optional curriculum would include topics related to the LGBTQ
community, use more gender-neutral language and teach that families
don’t always have one father and one mother, KOLD News 13 reported.
Meanwhile, in Texas, a battle over sex ed erupted last month when two
progressive groups told the state Board of Education that health
courses should be revamped to give children more explicit instruction
about contraception and sexually transmitted illnesses, the Dallas
Morning News reported.
The conservative group Texas Values responded, saying the two groups
have a “radical agenda” that State Board of Education members should
resist, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Sex education in schools requires partnerships
To effectively teach sex ed, administrators should consider partnering
with some private and quasi-public enterprises that can provide sex ed
to kids outside of the classroom, Jonathan Zimmerman, author of Too Hot
to Handle: A Global History of Sex Education told DA.
Additionally, try to bring different members of the community together
to figure out what it is that they want,” said Zimmerman, who also
serves as a professor of history and education at New York University.
“It may well be that you as a principal are assuming certain things
about community sentiment that aren’t true. But the only way to find
out is to talk to the community.”
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