School That Teaches Abstinence Education Experiences Chlamydia Outbreak | ThinkProgress
A small high school in Texas is currently grappling with an STD outbreak, as 20 cases of chlamydia have been confirmed among the student population. Since Crane High School only has about 300 students, that means about one in 15 kids there has been infected. School district officials sent out letters to the parents of high schoolers and middle schoolers to inform them of the “growing problem.”
The outbreak is putting the spotlight on the potential gaps in education in the Crane Independent School District. As Raw Story notes, the West Texas district does not currently offer a regular sex ed course that’s integrated into students’ health classes. High schoolers receive just three days of optional sexual health education during the fall semester, and those materials are centered on abstinence.
“Honestly this happens in any town, but just for it to hit close to home, I mean parents need to be aware of the situation and make sure they tell their kids to be safe and practice safe sex,” Diana Martinez, a parent who has young children in the school district, told local outlet NewsWest 9.
Not everyone agrees. In an interview with My San Antonio on Monday, the superintendent of Crane Independent School District, Jim T. Rumage, said that abstinence education is still the best approach for students, regardless of the current outbreak. “If kids are not having any sexual activity, they can’t get this disease,” Rumage said. “That’s not a bad program.”
A significant body of scientific research confirms that abstinence-based curricula are, in fact, bad programs. They’re often riddled with negative messages about sexuality and gender roles, and tend to downplay the effectiveness of birth control. On the other hand, more comprehensive sex ed programs that don’t rely so much on scare tactics have been proven to help teenagers delay sexual activity, as well as practice safe sex when they do choose to engage in that behavior.
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http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/05/04/3654650/outbreak-texas-sex-ed/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tptop3&elq=18f0d4cf75384676aa22faadaaa9b983&elqCampaignId=2809&elqaid=25459&elqat=1&elqTrackId=92b4d1b70ba54b6e81554ac62dbedf34
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School district's willful ignorance must be religion-based -- only the warped RW 'faith' practiced so loudly & politically in this country could cause heads to be so far buried in the sand.
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you have to laugh, else you'll just sit and cry.
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Imbeciles....