Florida law mandates that sex-education programs in public schools teach "abstinence from sexual activity as the expected standard for all school-age children while teaching the benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage."
But many Volusia County students don't live in that Ward-and-June world.
Many come from broken homes, and some have seen their own parents with multiple partners. Some are gay, or suspect they might be. And almost all of them are avid consumers of television shows, movies and novels portraying sexualized behavior by teens in a favorable light. During the election season, not even the news was safe: 17-year-old Bristol Palin was front-and-center as her mother sought the vice presidency, sporting a demure little bump and holding hands with her 18-year-old fiance.
Reality can be harsh for teens who don't get accurate information about their own sexuality. Teen mothers are less likely to graduate high school, and few go on to college. The children they bear are more likely to grow up in poverty and struggle in school. Teenage girls aren't the only ones at risk: The rate of sexually transmitted diseases among teens is on the rise. Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control reported that one in four teen girls has had at least one STD.
Thursday, the Volusia County School Board's School Health Advisory Committee completed its review of the district's sex-education policy. The review came after Lynn Koller of Ormond Beach launched a complaint against inaccuracies, religious bias and bigotry in Pure Energy, the program in use in Volusia for the past eight years. The "abstinence-based" program, produced by a Deltona company, is taught by volunteers instead of teachers. It offers little information about the anatomy of sex, but plenty of proselytizing about the glories of married life. And it deprives teenagers of factual information about contraception and disease-prevention.
The committee recommended a slight change -- expanding the program to give high school students a little more information about human sexuality -- but didn't go far enough.
Almost every study of abstinence-only programs shows they don't work. The most recent, a review of Florida's sex-education policies conducted by Indiana researchers, found that while the state maintained an official abstinence-only policy, sexual activity among teens increased. The state's teen pregnancy rate is the sixth-highest in the nation
Volusia County can do better for its students. While state law requires that local districts teach abstinence as the "best" way to prevent pregnancy and disease, there's nothing in the law prohibiting districts from going further, giving teens accurate information that will help them protect themselves if they become sexually active. Other school districts, including Brevard, have made the switch back to reality-based education about human sexuality. Volusia School Superintendent Margaret Smith should do the same, pushing for comprehensive sex education for both middle and high school students.11/14/2008 © Daytona Beach News-Journal
