Kansas May Require Abstinence Only Education

[racaulk]

(Wichita, Kansas) The Kansas Board of Education on Tuesday considers a proposal requiring abstinence-only sex education across the state.

Under the proposal, districts that teach more than abstinence could risk losing their accreditation.

"Abstinence until marriage is the best thing for young people physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually," said board member Kathy Martin, who proposed the change. "It's the best thing for society as a whole, and it's the message that schools absolutely ought to be sending."

Opponents say abstinence-only programs are unproven and impractical. Most districts promote abstinence but also give students information on how to protect themselves if they choose to have sex.

<---SNIP--->

Link: http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/04/040906kansas.htm

[muntrv]

1. What next?

Tell these students that babies come from the stork?

[Bleacher Creature]

20. They don't??

[jmowreader]

31. Well, stork babies do...

Human babies increasingly come from children who took abstinence-only sex education.

Abstinence-only sex ed because "parents should be the ones to teach their children the facts of life" plus parents who are afraid to mention sex to their children equals more little Republicans.

[XemaSab]

2. They worried about falling birth rates or what?

:shrug:

[alarimer]

3. These people have their heads in the sand

Do they WANT more teenage pregnancies? If that's the goal, this should work quite well.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Their logic escapes me

"We don't say, 'We know you're not going to fasten your seat belt or go the speed limit, so here's a road over here that you can drive on,' " said Martin.

Maybe cause I don't speak Fundie? This makes zero sense to me.

[MuseRider]

5. Good grief, it was just a couple of weeks ago

they passed the "opt in" for sex ed.

I am ashamed of my state but still fighting.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. I am stunned that they are threatening

loss of accreditation. That is completely nuts.

[MuseRider]

11. I'm sure we will be in the thick of this

like we were with the "opt in". We lost that one and I doubt we will win this one but we will be there.

I can't wait until those that are represented by these people vote these bozos off the school board. We have done it before, now this time we have to remind people what they will do. Short memories here I guess.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. They have way too much power

The state board in MO isn't nearly as powerful. We never even hear from them.

[joemurphy]

7. What's the Matter with Kansas? n/t

[NorCalDem]

9. a lot, apparently. n/t

[WindRavenX]

8. jesus christ

I wish stupidity was painful. Maybe then these assholes would wise up to REALiTY.

[depakid]

17. Stupidity IS painful

and thier kids WILL suffer.

STD and teen pregnancy rates are higher (and often keep rising) where so called "abstinance only" programs are put in place.

Of course, there's no talking sense to fundies. They don't care about the data. Science and reason don't enter into their equations.

[rucky]

10. I propose that every person who supports this...

should be required to adopt a child. (if they're deemed fit to parent)

[MuseRider]

13. Good idea but

I would not want another child to be raised by these people. IMO they are not fit to parent if they would let something like this happen.

[Kutjara]

12. Maybe its a simple misunderstanding

It could be that they're merely trying to do their part in the "War on Terror."

Perhaps when they heard that Islamic fundamentalists are stuck in the 14th Century, they thought they had to go back there to fight them.

I predict Disney-sponsored auto de fe by the end of next year.

[waiting for hope]

14. Abstinence only education

has been debunked for some time now.....
http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/story.asp?ID=734&Issue=Politics+and+Science

Wednesday, December 01, 2004 -- Under the Bush Administration, federal support for “abstinence-only” education programs has expanded rapidly. The federal government will spend approximately $170 million on abstinence-only education programs in fiscal year 2005, more than twice the amount spent in fiscal year 2001. As a result, abstinence-only education, which promotes abstinence from sexual activity without teaching basic facts about contraception, now reaches millions of children and adolescents each year.

At the request of Rep. Henry Waxman, this report evaluates the content of the most popular abstinence-only curricula used by grantees of the largest federal abstinence initiative, SPRANS (Special Programs of Regional and National Significance Community-Based Abstinence Education). Through SPRANS, the Department of Health and Human Services provides grants to community organizations that teach abstinence-only curricula to youth. The curricula used in SPRANS and other federally funded programs are not reviewed for accuracy by the federal government.

The report finds that over 80% of the abstinence-only curricula, used by over two-thirds of SPRANS grantees in 2003, contain false, misleading, or distorted information about reproductive health.



If they chose to live in the Dark Ages....so be it - I've had it with people trying to legislate morality in the guise of law....

[WindRavenX]

18. why bring facts to this discussion?

:sarcasm:

[waiting for hope]

23. Gee, stupid me....

I forgot that this country is turning the clock back 200 years.....Yikes! Is the concept of bathing only once a year coming back? How about leeches and bleeding? :cry: I'll tell ya, this is scary, real scary.....

[KyuzoGator]

15. "Unproven and impractical"??? How about DON'T FUCKING WORK?

Teenagers have sex. They always have had sex (read Romeo & Juliet some time). They always will have sex.

Telling a teenager not to do something is like begging on bended knee to go do it as soon as possible.

Oh wait...I forgot. Kansas is fucking BACKWARDS AND STUPID. Never mind.

[LuCifer]

16. I say this for them, they're persistent in their denail of SCIENCE!

:crazy::puke::wtf::argh::spank:

[Kutjara]

21. Of course they deny science

They haven't got the brains to understand it. It intimidates them and makes them feel stupid. Whenever they try to think about anything more complex than milking cows, their eyes cross.

Its perfectly understandable why they don't like science. What's harder to understand is why these morons are allowed out on their own.

[ruggerson]

19. More BULLSHIT from the moral elitists

Fuck them.

[KyuzoGator]

22. Congratulations to Ann Coulter for holding out for Mr. Right for 44 years!

nt

[Warren DeMontague]

25. Hmmm. Kathy Martin, Kansas State school board...

...Now WHERE have I heard that name before?

http://venganza.org/response.htm

From: Mrs. Kathy Martin, District 6

"It is a serious offense to mock God."

http://redstaterabble.blogspot.com/2005/05/board-member-kathy-martin-hasnt-read.html

http://www.albionmonitor.com/0505a/scopes2.html

The conservative faction of the Kansas State School Board is led by Kathy Martin, the outspoken former teacher from Clay Center, Kansas, who minces no words about her agenda, or her tenuous grasp of science. In an interview with the Clay Center newspaper, Martin said, "evolution has been proven false. intelligent design is science-based and strong in facts." Going further, she stated, "Man has changed and evolved, but we are not going to change back into monkeys." When asked if intelligent design was a form of Creationism, she commented, "Of course this is a Christian agenda. We are a Christian nation. Our country is made up of Christian conservatives. We don't often speak up, but we need to stand up and let our voices be heard." Martin saved her most revealing dictum for last. "Why shouldn't theology be taught in the classroom? Morality ought to be taught in every class. Prayer ought to be allowed. Whenever a child wanted to pray in class, I prayed with them. All children believe in God. Even little children whose parents don't take them to church believe in God."

Martin was elected in November as a stealth candidate to push an anti-evolution agenda. "We encouraged people to elect a conservative school board" to revive the evolution debate, Rev. Terry Fox, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Wichita told the Los Angeles Times. "It was a piece of cake. It was such a low-flying election, no one was paying attention." Martin, who had never before run for public office, told the Times she was reluctant to run until meeting with conservative and religious leaders. "I prayed, and God helped me decide. Suddenly, I was traveling all over the state, talking to people. I kept running into strangers who were working on behalf of my campaign."

In a state where there is currently a dearth of funding for public schools, Kathy Martin, Steve Abrams, and Connie Morris spent $10,000 on the "Scopes II" spectacle. The hearings concluded with Martin accusing Irigonegaray of having a "bullying tongue" and Morris calling him "abusive." She also said Thursday, "I want you to know I forgive you."

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/05/13/kansas/index.html


etc. etc.

[MuseRider]

26. We have WAY too many stealth

candidates who run for the school board. It took me weeks of searching to find out anything about the two running in my district. I ended up voting on their bio, if it included sunday school activities or not. I got lucky, mine is not one of the wackos. This particular board is so bad I doubt they will be able to get away without answering questions about what they believe is best for the schools again. At least I hope not.

[KyuzoGator]

28. My high school had so many teen mothers that we had a day care.

Students would take a class called "child care" where they took care of the children of the teen mothers all day while the mothers went to class.

I challenge any Kansas school board member to walk through the halls of an inner city high school and tell me that abstinence education works.

[MuseRider]

29. They would close their

eyes and put their fingers in their ears and do a Janet Parshall. They live in a make believe world and want the rest of us to come along with them. Sad, sad and shameful.

[Kutjara]

32. What a terrifying woman

To be so utterly ignorant and yet to wield such power over the minds of children.

"Intelligent design is science-based and strong in facts." Sure it is. Made up facts, straight from the Oh-Please-Let-It-Be-So Faculty of the University of Wishful Thinking. "Evolution has been proven false." By whom? The Trix rabbit? Its actually one of the most successful scientific theories in existence.

"Man has changed and evolved, but we are not going to change back into monkeys." So we've changed and evolved but evolution has been disproved. What changed us? What mechanism facilitated that change. Anyway, if God created us in his image (as this nutcase believes), why would we change? To be less like him? Then there's the wonderful nonsequitir about not changing back into monkeys, as if animals simply revert back to earlier phenotypes for no particular reason. She also perpetuates the common fallacy that we evolved from monkeys (or apes). We did not. Humans, monkeys and apes all evolved from a common primate ancestor. But we are no more likely to de-evolve into that ancestor as we are to become a flatfish.

So far, this babble is just the wooly-headed nonsense of a poorly educated, ignorant woman. Where it gets really scary is when she starts spouting about America being a conservative Christian nation. Really? I must have missed that memo. And the one about all children believing in God. Even Buddhist ones?

The malignant, unthinking chauvanism of this woman is scarcely credible. She's like some character out of "To Kill a Mockingbird." To have a head so devoid of knowledge and yet to have such a powerful conviction that the knowledge you do possess is absolutely correct and indisputable makes my blood run cold.

She shouldn't be allowed anywhere near children.

[mitchum]

27. Fuck Kansas

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hobarticus]

30. Breaking: States surrounding Kansas open borders to refugees...

I can take several blue Kansans in...won't you please help?

[neoblues]

33. "Abstinence-Only Education" is an Oxymoron

It's not education, it's a cliche.... "just say no". Worse, it's actually providing disinformation such as that condoms don't help prevent STDs, etc.

Since it will fail, if you want to make children by accident... move to Kansas (that wouldn't work since if you're reading this, you're sufficiently "educated" to know about birth control; oh well).