Sex education varies across state
SEX from page 1 _
Consequently, different teachers
teach different subjects, and some
avoid the discomfort of sexual educa
tion altogether. The result is sex edu
cation that varies statewide - from
school to school, and from student to
student.
This is evident when students
arrive at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln, said Pat Tetreault, the uni
versity’s sexuality education coordi
nator.
“I think (students’ education)
really varies, since sex education is
not a requirement in public schools,”
Tetreault said.
While varying in depth and
degree from classroom to classroom
and school to school, both Tetreault
and Tucker believe the sex education
students receive before college has
one common thread: It is not enough.
The Unis and he bees
The states listed below and the District of
Columbia require all public schools to teach
sex education. States with an asterisk require
sexuality programs to include abstinence
education. &
1. Alabama*
2. Arkansas
3. Delaware
4. District of Columbi
5. Georgia
6. Hawaii
7. Illinois*
8. Iowa
9. Kansas
10. Maryland
11. Minnesota
12. Nevada
13. New Jersey
14. North Carolina
15. Rhode Island
16. South Cantfna
17. Tennessee
18. Utah*
19. Vermont
20. West Virginia
Source: National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Lsague
JonFrank/DN
Public schools:
Silence can reign
With no state mandates guiding
school districts on whether to offer
sex education or not, students are
bound to come away with different
sex education experiences, said
Julane Hill, a HIV/AIDS consultant
for the Nebraska Department of
Education.
Nebraska has more than 600
school districts, Hill said. Each dis
trict is controlled locally and has its
They can’t get enough pertinent
information in that brief amount of
time.
That can be dangerous when it
comes to deciding whether to have
sex or not. The less time the word
“sex” comes up in the classroom, the
less information students are going to
have about it.
“The more information you have,
the less likely you are going to take
that risk,” Bartle said.
Tucker agreed. She teaches sex
UWU SCI U1 I U1CS.
That means
there could poten
tially be 600 differ
ent versions of sex
education curricu
lum, with some
schools teaching
more and some
schools teaching
less - a lot less.
Lincoln Public
Schools does a very
good job with sex
education, while a
school 30 miles
away from Lincoln
doesn’t address it at
all,” Hill said.
Nebraska isn’t
the only state that
doesn’t reauire
66
“Lincoln Public
Schools does a very
good job with sex
education, while a
school 30 miles
away from Lincoln
doesn’t address
it at all”
Julane Hill
HIV/AIDS consultant
cuuuaium ai
Lincoln East dur
ing 10 days of a 45
day-long health
class.
“That’s just not
enough.”
College: Time
to talk
Tetreault real
izes everyday the
dearth of serious
sexual education in
Nebraska public
schools.
She estimates
that programs
sponsored by her
sexuality education
deoartment reach
teachers in each
school district to talk about sex in the
classroom. Only 19 states and the
District of Columbia require schools
to provide any type of sex education
at all.
Sixteen states, including
Nebraska, do not require schools to
provide STD or HIV/AIDS educa
tion.
Some schools in Nebraska are
progressive nationally, providing edu
cation on contraception to supple
ment their abstinence-only education,
said Margie Bartle, a community edu
cator at Planned Parenthood.
Other schools teach the same
things that have been taught since the
1950s, Bartle s^id, and that’s danger
ous.
wim me introduction ot HIV, the
necessity of talking about sex has
increased dramatically. At the same
time, more people have started speak
ing out against sex education because
they think it would increase the risks
of teens having sex, Bartle said.
So some school districts in
Nebraska wind up with virtually no
sex education, Bartle said.
Other districts with sex education
programs may not teach students
enough.
Even in schools where students
are learning about sexuality, time
constraints often prevent students
from getting all the information,
Tucker said. Students at Lincoln East
High School who take a health class
get 10 days of exposure to the topic.
The class wasn’t required until this
year.
About a week of sex education
once during students’ high school
careers is not enough, Tucker said.
about 3,000 college
students each year - many of whom
have little knowledge of serious sex
issues.
While most students attending her
programs seem to have the basics of
anatomy and HTV transmission down,
many aren’t familiar with topics such
as sexually transmitted diseases and
contraception.
This is especially apparent among
women taking the contraceptive class
offered by the University Health
Center, Tetreault said. All women
who request birth control pills
through the health center must take
the course.
Muaents wno go through the
contraceptive class - instantly they
will say they have learned some
thing,” Tetreault said. “The majority
will say it is not a review.”
UNL student Jennifer Skala said
she noticed students’ lack of knowl
edge on sexuality. She coordinates
PERSUNL, a group of on-campus
peer sexuality educators, and she
plays a game called Keys to Sexual
Health during her presentations to
students. The game encourages stu
dents to talk about different issues
related to sexuality.
“People are very receptive to it
because they want to actually talk
about sex,” Skala said. “They’ve
never had that before.”
The classroom isn’t the only place
where students miss out on sex-relat
ed discourse. When Tucker asked a
health class of 30 students who had
talked with their parents about sex,
not too many hands went up in the air.
“Only two out of 30 students said
their parents talked to them about
sex,” Tucker said.
“The condom wasn ’t helping with broken hearts and with kids
being used and with STDs.” >
Abstinence-only education
spreading under Title V act
By Veronica Daehn
Staff writer
A federal grant has changed the face of sex educa
tion in some Nebraska school districts - and for the bet
ter, some educators said.
The grant, provided under an act called Title V,
allots money to organizations for teaching abstinence
only sex education instead of safe sex. Schools can’t
apply for the grant directly, but private organizations
may do so, then channel money to schools.
As a result, Grand Island received grant funds to
pay for an abstinence-only sex education curriculum
that replaced the school district’s former safe sex pro
Island schools chose to adopt an abstinence-only edu
cation policy, not because of religion, but because of a
genuine concern for students’ health.
“Their best health is to not have sex,” she said.
“We’re not doing it from a religious stance, but from a
health one.”
The number of people with sexually transmitted
diseases in Nebraska is increasing, Longmore said. One
in five college students have had an STD, yet most high
school-age kids don’t realize how easy it is to contract
one. Abstinence is the only sure prevention.
In order to develop the abstinence-only program
they wanted to use, Grand Island contacted a company
out of Longmont, Colo., called Friends First, which
developed a program called Why Am I Tempted, or
gram tnis year, me out program
taught information on contraception
and other issues involving sexual
activity;Peggy Longmore, Grand
Island abstinence education coordi
nator, said she believed the new pro
gram would work better than the last.
“The condom wasn’t helping
with broken hearts and with kids
being used and with STDs,” she said
about the prevention tactics taught in
safe-sex programs.
Since this is Grand Island’s first
year teaching abstinence, there are no
statistics on the program’s success.
But students will be tracked for four
years in order to gauge abstinence r
education’s effectiveness.
“No one has really done gopd
abstinence research,” Longmore ■
said. “The people in D.C. want to see
where their money’s going.”
Funding for abstinence-only
courses, received under a
Congressional act named Title V,
became available July 1, 1998. St.
Francis Hospital in Grand Island
_i * j r_xi_x* • j_i__j
66
For there to be a
dramatic shift
in thinking, there
has to be a
pronounced period
of time over which
they re taught. A
peech might change
your attitude, but it
won’t change
your mind.”
Mike Worley
Friends First executive director
WAIT. Mike Worley, executive
director of Friends First, said the pri
mary goal of WAIT was to develop a
program to combat teen pregnancy
and then focus on some of the dan
gers of STDs.
“Sex in the 1990s is really more
of a health issue than anything,”
Worley said. “We have research that
says 1 out of every 5 Americans over
12 have a STD. That’s what we’re
going after. ”
Founded in 1993, Friends First
has spoken to about 40,000 students
nationwide, Worley said. WAIT goes
into both public and parochial
schools, but does not bring any reli
gious doctrine into its training.
Worley said the abstinence cur
riculum had to work throughout a _
student’s educational journey. In
other words, “a one-hour speech on
the joys of abstinence isn’t going to
cut it.”
“For there to be a dramatic shift in
thinking, there has to be a pro
nounced period of time over which
opputu iut mw i^uuai anu
then gave it to the school.
Longmore said hospital officials were concerned
about the increasing number of pregnancies and STDs,
so they contacted the state about possible solutions.
State officials suggested applying for Title V
Norfolk and Alliance public schools also get money
for abstinence education through Title V, specifically
through its Maternal and Child Health Block Grant,
which will provide $50 million in grant money each
year for five years to participating institutions. That
grant is essentially welfare reform legislation passed by
Congress.
Abstinence education isn’t new to parochial
schools, which can teach abstinence education based
on religion because they aren’t state affiliated. That
doesn’t mean the schools neglect teaching topics such
as sexually transmitted disease, though.
Sister Veronica Volkmer, who coordinates health
education at Pius X High School in Lincoln, said the
school reminded students Catholic doctrine speaks
against premarital sex.
“We educate students about their relationship with
God,” Volkmer said. “Of course we do. But we really try
to push the relationship aspect of it. Students need to
learn about sexually transmitted diseases, too. There is
more to the program than religion.”The recent surge in
abstinence education in public schools, however, isn’t
based upon Christian morality.Longmore said Grand
ixicy rc laugxii. speecii iiiigxxi
change your attitude, but it won’t change your mind.”
Longmore said about 20 people ranging from fami
ly consumer science teachers, school counselors,
school nurses and physical education teachers were
trained to instruct WAIT classes.
In Grand Island, students are first introduced to
abstinence education in seventh grade during a required
health class. Longmore said a week and a half of that
class was donated to abstinence.
.An additional week of abstinence training is
required in tenth grade dining Institute Week, a week
falling between first and second semesters, Longmore
said. The only exception is for students involved in
band or drama during that time. No other training is
required throughout the students’ schooling, but a few
elective classes are available at the high school.
Longmore said before adopting the current curricu
lum, her school did not have a set sex education cur
riculum.
“There weren’t many guidelines before,” she said.
“It was whatever the teacher wanted to teach.”
Whether or not Grand Island changed its curricu
lum because of substantial federal money, Longmore
feels it was a wise decision.
“It’s best that kids don’t have sex.”
Senior editor Sam McKewon contributed to this
story.
youth educators:
Quiet no more
Tucker;‘Bartle and other educa
tors are taking solid strides to make
sure more students will come out of
high school with some kind of sex
education.
Tucker gladly shares about 25
/ears worth of tips on talking candid
ly to students about sex.
“It is my personal goal to encour
age more teachers in the district to
teach kids more sex education.”
Avery said that groups such as
Planned Parenthood and the
Lancaster County Abstinence
Coalition had made themselves avail
able to go into the classroom and to
help teachers educate students.
For the many schools lacking
thorough sex educa\ion programs,
Bartle said, change won’t come
quickly. It will take some time to
change a generation of attitudes that
still sees sex education as taboo.
But that doesn’t let teachers and
administrators off the hook, Bartle
said. Both groups can’t Jet their atti
tudes about sex education get in the
way of providing students important
information. Instead, schools need to
figure out a way to present it and feel
comfortable with it, Bartle said.
“Information can be given in the
context of the school district’s belief
system,” Bartle said. “Schools can
give factual information and make it a
I
safe environment to ask questions.”
Although students can learn about
sex and sexuality in college, Tetreault
said it was best for them to receive
information from teachers, schools
and parents before they left home.
“You’re better off making
informed decisions and realizing you
have choices to make rather than hav
ing to make choices and being unpre
pared for them.”
The first step toward improving
all students’ sex education, Tucker
said, is something she realized while
staring into the bathroom mirror on
that first day of teaching sexuality.
“Students want to talk about it.
You just have to set it up so they can
doit.”