Vatican Releases Controversial Sex Education Program The Vatican has released a sex education program—”The Meeting Point: Course of Affective Sexual Education for Young People”—that has many up in arms. Life Site, a news site that align itself with “traditional Judeo-Christian principles,” lays out what they see as its positive and negative attributes. Restrictive Alaska Bill… Read more »
Sex Ed Bill Causes Controversy in Massachusetts A group of Massachusetts legislators have introduced a bill that would set curricula for schools that offer sex ed. Lessons would be required to include “age-appropriate” information on healthy relationships, the benefits of abstinence, and the use of contraceptive methods to help prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The bill was initially… Read more »
New Report Claims British Sex Ed Unfit for New Generation According to a new report, sex education in British schools is “unfit” for the “smartphone generation.” The report goes on to claim that 95 percent of pupils are not being taught about LGBT relationships, and one in seven pupils receives no sex ed classes at all. The… Read more »
Early last month, a rape trial that might have otherwise gone unnoticed went viral when a letter the victim read aloud to her attacker was run on the news channel of popular lifestyle site BuzzFeed. Through this woman’s powerful and heartbreaking words, the world learned how former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner had sexually assaulted an… Read more »
Sex Ed Updates Come to Mount Pleasant School District For the first time since 2011, the Mt. Pleasant, Michigan sex education advisory board will be making changes to the district’s sex education curriculum. Most notably, sex education will now be offered as early as fourth grade. Kenyans Look for Ways to Bring Sex Ed to More… Read more »
Virginia High Schools Work on Injecting Consent into Sex Ed Curricula Last year, Fairfax County Public Schools updated its family life education curriculum to include lessons on sexual consent and assault. The changes are set to be implemented next school year. Among the updates being considered is the inclusion of a three-part video about sexual violence…. Read more »
Chair of Toronto Catholic District School Board Has a Change of Heart In the past, Angela Kennedy, chair of the Toronto Catholic District School Board, has fought the implementation of a more comprehensive sex ed curriculum because of her religious beliefs. But since learning of her son’s abuse as a child, she has had a change of… Read more »
At the beginning of June, Planned Parenthood, of which we are an affiliate, reaffirmed its commitment to serving all people. “This June, and every day of the year,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, “Planned Parenthood stands with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. We see you. We care about you. We stand with… Read more »
An Ontario Principal is Pushing a Watered Down Version of New Sex Ed Curriculum A school principal in Ontario, Canada is pushing a watered down version of the new sex ed curriculum as a means of combating plummeting enrollment rates. Among the changes made, students will be taught the phrase “private parts,” versus the anatomically… Read more »
Last week, the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC) reported on the Girls’ Power Initiative (GPI)—a youth development organization—and on how they were struggling to measure the impact of the comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programs they were providing in Nigeria. Comfort Ikpeme, a coordinator for the GPI, wrote of how her organization has been using the Voice, Action, Comportment,… Read more »
Outrage in Dearborn, MI Over ‘Explicit’ Sex Ed Curriculum Several students at Fordson High School in Dearborn, MI walked out of their health class recently after being quizzed on their knowledge of safe sex habits. Since then, parents have expressed outrage about the class, saying they didn’t even know about, and hadn’t been given the opportunity to… Read more »
Earlier this week, we mentioned that several schools in Ontario, Canada are experiencing a backlash from parents who are upset with the new sex ed curriculum. Thorncliffe Park Public School in Toronto, was forced to offer a “sanitized” version of the curriculum to first graders, as a way to stop parents from pulling their children out of class…. Read more »
San Francisco Schools Strengthen Their Already Robust Sex Ed Curricula The California Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Act went into effect at the beginning of 2016, but the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has been providing education that meets its requirements for years. The SFUSD is now assisting other school districts, and is making their sex… Read more »
Toronto Public School Forced to Offer ‘Sanitized’ Version of Sex Ed Thorncliffe Park Public School in Toronto, Canada has begun offering a “sanitized” version of Ontario’s sex ed curriculum to first graders, as a way to stop parents from pulling their children out of class. This move comes into response to controversy over the existing curriculum, over which hundreds… Read more »
In the past few years, issues of consent—and a shift from “no means no” to “yes means “yes”—have placed consent education and rape prevention at the forefront of the sex ed debate. In 2014, Rolling Stone published “A Rape on Campus,” and then retracted the piece after many parts of the story were called into question. In… Read more »
East Lansing School Board Votes to Allow Guest Speakers from Local Health Centers Board members of the East Lansing, MI school board voted 7-0 to allow guest speakers from Willow Adolescent Health Center Outreach Educational Program and End Violent Encounters to speak at East Lansing High School. Outside speakers for sex education were pulled from the district… Read more »
Public opinion on the most effective means of sex education has been split for years and, in fact, sex ed as we know it today originated from an explosion in teen pregnancy rates in the 1960s and ’70s, followed swiftly by the AIDS crisis. At the time, as a response to what was seen as… Read more »
Effects of New California Laws Continue to Spread Across the State In Auburn, California, high school trustees voted to adopt the new state law into its policies. As a result, students in the area will learn about healthy relationships, pregnancy and STI prevention, gender stereotypes, and more. Parents will be sent letters regarding the lessons, inviting them to… Read more »
As U.S. Sex Ed Programs Remain Bifurcated, New Sources of Info Emerge Australian Government Pulls Funding from Youth-Led Sex Ed Program The Australian government is pulling all funding from YEAH ((Youth Empowerment Against HIV/AIDS), a program that uses youth educators to deliver sex education in schools and universities. After June 30, YEAH will be replaced with with an online resource…. Read more »
A new study from researchers at the Guttmacher Institute found that the percentage of teens who have received a formal sex education dropped significantly between 2006 and 2013. The study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found significant declines in education on birth control, saying no to sex, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS. In fact, a significant… Read more »
