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Lawmaker
Aims at Setting Standards for Sex-Ed Classes |
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Rep. Shay Schual-Berke
(D-Normandy Park) is sponsoring a bill that would require public schools in
Washington to include both abstinence and contraception in sex education
curricula. House Bill 1297 seeks to provide students with medically
accurate, age-appropriate, and thorough sexual health information.
Currently, school districts are not required to teach sex education; the
Healthy Youth Act would only set new standards for those that do.
According to Schual-Berke, some health classes provide inaccurate
information, implying or directly stating that premarital sex can cause
infertility and that condoms never work. Such messages leave teens
unprepared because they do not address the effectiveness of condoms or
explain the real risks of sex. "We are subjecting too many of our students
to misinformation," she said.
Abstinence-only advocates maintain that Schual-Berke's bill sends mixed
messages. Telling students not to have sex while showing them how to use a
condom is confusing, they say.
Parents, teens, and medical advocates representing both sides of the issue
recently packed a House committee hearing on the act.
The state Department of Health backs HB 1297, which is based on guidelines
the department and the superintendent of public instruction issued in 2005.
The guidelines also call for lessons about communication, anatomy,
self-esteem, values, relationships, peer and media pressures, and where to
access pregnancy and disease testing. Should the bill pass, curricula would
be updated to fit the guidelines by next school year.
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Seattle Times
(02.01.07):: Elliott Wilson |
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We are providing the above information as a public
service only. Providing synopses of key scientific articles and lay
media reports on HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases
does not constitute endorsement. The above summaries were prepared
without conducting any additional research or investigation into the
facts and statements made in the articles being summarized, and
therefore readers are expressly cautioned against relying on the
validity or invalidity of any statements made in these summaries. This
CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News
Update also includes information from CDC and
other government agencies, such as background on MMWR articles, fact
sheets and announcements. |
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