Why does my school system choose to remain blind to sex ed????

[kick-ass-bob]

Wake says no to survey
Abstinence-only district sees conflict

In 1999, when parents balked at a survey that asked middle school students probing questions about sex and drugs, Wake County school officials said the questionnaire would gather crucial information about children's behavior.

Now school administrators have a new message. This year, as they did two years ago, Wake schools informed state officials that the district will not participate in a survey of middle- and high-school students conducted every two years by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

{snip}

Wake officials say they believe in that goal, but they don't like some of the probing questions, particularly those about sex. The questions seem to assume that high school students are sexually active, they say, and that goes against the system's abstinence-only sex education curriculum.

"I think for impressionable young people, they will ask the question, 'Is everybody else doing it besides me?' " said Wake Superintendent Bill McNeal. "I'm sure that's not what they intend to imply, but that's a concern of ours."

I think it requires a registration to see the story:
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/2137325p-8518457c.html

We are the second biggest school district in the state - not including this county could critically impair the study and its effectiveness.
So, basically, they weigh some parents objections more than a major public health issue.
Thanks.
Idiots.
:grr:

[rocktivity]

1. Which is why I never take youth sex studies seriously

"I think for impressionable young people, they will ask the question, 'Is everybody else doing it besides me?'"

I've always suspected that kids are more likely to claim they're having sex on a survey when they aren't either to bolster their egos or just have a laugh. I remember hearing about a study where a high percentage of twelve-year-olds claimed to be sexually active. They probably even brag to each other about it afterwards.

:headbang:
rocknation

[kick-ass-bob]

3. that is a good point.

Actually, I think I, myself misrepresented something on one of those surveys once.

[LynneSin]

2. Because it's better to be ignorant that put up with those fundie parents

that'll have a hissy fit if they actually do something

:cry:

[kick-ass-bob]

4. so when their kid dies from AIDS

they will just shrug and wonder how that happened because no one ever mentioned sex to them, so they couldn't have done it.

Then they'll sue the school system.

:eyes:

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

5. Exactly right

On a special-interest board I frequent, I participated in a discussion about the recent supervirus HIV story, and some fundie Xtian rightie basically said, "Sex ed, what a waste of time and money - I mean, like duh, Trojans do come with instructions, you idiots." That made me mad to the nth degree.

Down the road such people would take us lies more AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, etc.

[CBHagman]

6. The thing that gets to me...

...is that mandatory school attendance is, in effect, our last chance for a captive audience and therefore the last chance to assure that kids know all they need to know medically and scientifically.

And don't expect the parents to do the job. Some of them won't talk about it, and some of them are so ignorant themselves. I once heard a woman on a talk show claim that urine was expelled through the vagina. :eyes: Yes, people are that ignorant.

Ignorance is not innocence, and today we have a dangerous combination of near-constant media titillation and a real lack of willingness to educate the public, both adults and children, about sex.