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CBS5 reports that despite the California Department of Education's strict laws that sex education programs be medically accurate and objective, abstinence-only group Free to Be has been teaching their scientifically-inaccurate curriculum in Sonoma County Schools for the past seventeen years, up until this past May.
Robert Edmonds, a parent of a 12-year-old student, had signed up his son to take sex education, but was disturbed to find out that all he was learning was "abstinence-only-until-marriage." Edmonds took his complaints throughout the school chain of command and ended up filing a complaint with the California Department of Education via the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The schools were promptly told that sex ed programs must be comprehensive and include information about birth control, and therefore Free to Be is no longer free to be in the schools.
Free to Be leaders are currently looking into legal options for fighting the Department of Education, but it looks like their funding, which was over $4 million in federal grants during the past five years, will soon run dry, thanks to Obama cutting abstinence-only-until-marriage education in his proposed budget for 2010.
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The church has no place in a public school.
HA HA
Abstinence only helped keep the Palin kids pure!
Oh wait...
Kittens!!! Squee!
What was the post about again?
I actually went to Petaluma High and was in a sex ed class that Free To Be came to speak at. They came for one class out of the semester, and the student guest speakers told their stories of why they chose to wait until marriage. During the rest of the semester, birth control, STD's, healthy eating and drug abuse was covered. The Free to Be guest lecturers were presented and presented themselves as one possible choice in life. As a first hand audience member, I can say with certainty that they do not attempt to force their choices on anyone.
"Abstinence only" leads to the very reliable, teen birth control method called
"let-me-just-put-it-in-for-a-second"
robinsf anxiously awaits one of those Jonas Bros eunuchs to knock up Paris Hilton
Abstinence isn’t the “bad” word that today’s culture makes it out to be. It’s actually the exact opposite – it’s a positive choice that teens can make to ensure a brighter and healthier future. Teens who choose abstinence don’t have to worry about STD’s or STI’s, and they don’t have to carry the emotional baggage that having sex brings. An abstinent teen can keep a clear mind to help make positive, healthy choices for their future. And most importantly, being abstinent means that you never have to live with regrets.
“Game Plan” is a great abstinence-based curriculum that many schools across the United States are using. To learn more about “Game Plan”, visit www.justsayyes.org
No one's arguing that abstinence is a bad thing. It's the misinformation these groups spread about birth control, etc that is harmful. (They are forced to be this way because of the federal funding they receive.)
And even the tagline on your "Game Plan" website is biased: "A health-based educational organization equipping students to avoid destructive behaviors and lead successful lives." Teens having sex is not necessarily destructive. Withholding scientific facts and instilling fear in them about sex is.
"...they don’t have to carry the emotional baggage that having sex brings."
Right there is your anti-sex attitude in a nutshell. Being sexually intimate with someone does not automatically drag baggage into the equation - unless, of course, people are taught that avoiding sex is optimal.
"...being abstinent means that you never have to live with regrets."
The shit of bulls, it threatens to drown me here. Again, this is an anti-sex message. Tell me, what's the game plan for making sex OK? It has to be OK eventually, right? How else do we get fulfilled adults and wanted babies?