Lawmaker Aims at Setting Standards for Sex-Ed Classes

Lawmaker Aims at Setting Standards for Sex-Ed Classes

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.

Seattle Times (02.01.07):: Elliott Wilson

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