View Full Version : Birds and the Bees in OK



kelroy55
12-03-2013, 11:12 AM
Look like the abstinence plan isn't working.....



Much about sex education has changed since Susan Johnson-Staples taught the subject for Oklahoma City Public Schools in the 1980s.

Back then, Johnson-Staples was a home economics and personal development teacher who discussed the birds and bees with students in great detail.


“We had a longer length of time to talk about relationships, to talk about intimacy, to talk about refusal skills, to talk about the use of contraception,” recalled Johnson-Staples, now the district's director of college and career readiness and guidance services.

“Those were the kinds of things that were discussed, but they were discussed in a very structured, sequential and age-appropriate manner.”

The state's largest school district no longer offers sex education courses, choosing instead to teach related content that applies to core subjects like physiology and elective courses such as adult and family living.

By law, public schools in Oklahoma are not required to teach sex education but must provide AIDS prevention education.

And that has Johnson-Staples and others concerned, including those who track births and sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers.

“I believe that given everything that is happening in society today it would be helpful to offer good quality programs,” Johnson-Staples said. “In the absence of healthy, accurate information, kids are going to find their own answers. Kids are really misinformed in a lot of areas when it comes to those things.”

The number of teen births and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) has prompted concern among administrators with state and local health departments.

Statewide, 21,307 cases of sexually transmitted diseases, including 20 cases of HIV, were reported among those ages 15 to 19 in 2012, according to the state Health Department.

“Based on the STD rate that we're seeing in adolescents, it's obvious that there's an educational need regarding sexual health,” said Kristen Eberly, who manages the Health Department's HIV and STD programs.

“When we talk to newly diagnosed individuals, oftentimes they tell us they didn't know they're putting themselves at risk for HIV because they were never taught how to protect themselves.”

Although teen birthrates across the country continue to decline, Oklahoma still has one of the highest teen birthrates in the country, said Thad Burk, who studies disease and analyzes trends for the Health Department.

Statewide, there were 47.8 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19 in 2011, the fifth-highest rate in the country, Burk said. In Oklahoma County the birthrate was 56.2.

Oklahoma is one of the only states that does not mandate school districts to provide comprehensive health education, which includes sex education.

“I think if you look at simply the birthrates, you can say that yes, there is a need for more comprehensive sexuality education,” said Linsey Garlington, teen pregnancy prevention program supervisor for the Oklahoma City-County Health Department. “We believe that parents are the first and most important educators of their children. We hope that they're getting information from a trusted adult.”

The AIDS scare changed the way parents, educators and lawmakers looked at sex education and in 1987, legislation was passed requiring public schools to teach AIDS prevention.

“I think that brought about a more-inclusive awareness,” Johnson-Staples said. “More parents got involved in the process and started asking questions, calling or coming to school.”

In the early 1990s, the district stopped teaching students about contraception in favor of abstinence.

“I would say our overriding goal is that we want to teach kids that participating in sexually activity is a choice and that it can lead to things and that abstinence is probably the safest way to avoid anything,” Johnson-Staples said.

Debbie Johnson oversees about three dozen nurses for the Oklahoma City district as health services administrator. Those nurses teach human growth and development to fourth- and fifth-graders.

“We are very open and honest with them about the things they are going through,” she said. “But when they ask me questions about sexuality I tell them, ‘that's a conversation you should have with mom or dad.'”

And that's where sex education often gets lost in translation, said Johnson, a former elementary school nurse.

“I just don't think people sit down and have the conversations they need to have with their kids, and I don't think the kids sit down and have the conversations they need to have with their parents,” she said. “They listen to their peers and older siblings.”

Under state law, parents have the right to inspect all curriculum and material used in connection with a sex education class or program designed to discuss sexual behavior or attitudes.

The Oklahoma City district provides permission slips for parents to sign only if they do not want their child to be exposed to such content.

“We still will have those parents who truly believe that this is a subject matter that needs to be addressed at home and not in a school setting,” Johnson-Staples said.

It is unclear how many of Oklahoma's more than 500 school districts teach sex education.

“They're not required to report it to us, so we don't have a way to count it,” said Tricia Pemberton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.

Students who choose to disregard the district's message of abstinence are encouraged to talk to their parents and their doctors, Johnson-Staples said.

Lack of sex education in Oklahoma City schools raises questions | News OK (http://newsok.com/lack-of-sex-education-in-oklahoma-city-schools-raises-questions/article/3910282)

HangryHippo
12-03-2013, 11:15 AM
I don't feel like reading this, can you give me the gist of all that? :wink:

RadicalModerate
12-03-2013, 11:17 AM
I don't feel like reading this, can you give me the gist of all that? :wink:

It is a plot, conceived in Bentonville, Arkansas, to make sure that the People of Walmart will never be in short supply.

okcboomer
12-03-2013, 11:18 AM
I'm too lazy, could you draw a picture?

ThomPaine
12-03-2013, 12:17 PM
I don't feel like reading this, can you give me the gist of all that? :wink:

In - out, repeat.

(That seems to be about the quality of current education. Or they just let the kids search the internet for healthy behavior to model.)

RadicalModerate
12-03-2013, 12:45 PM
In - out, repeat.

(That seems to be about the quality of current education. Or they just let the kids search the internet for healthy behavior to model.)

Once again, the zombiesque specter of They rears its ugly head.
(who, exactly, is they? . . . only the miley cyrus fans knows. well, maybe them marilyn manson peeps too. =)

Bunty
12-03-2013, 05:33 PM
I don't feel like reading this, can you give me the gist of all that? :wink:

It's that it's felt it's wrong and stupid to teach kids any sex education other than abstinence, because it might arouse kids into being curious enough to try out sexual intercourse.

ThomPaine
12-03-2013, 06:16 PM
It's that it's felt it's wrong and stupid to teach kids any sex education other than abstinence, because it might arouse kids into being curious enough to try out sexual intercourse.

You'd think the parallels between abstinence only education and the Tree of Wisdom tale from Genesis would let folks know how pointless it is. If Eve wouldn't listen to God, why would we be so naive to think our children will listen to us/teachers without giving them a better reason than "because I said so/wait until you're married"?

RadicalModerate
12-03-2013, 06:27 PM
Okay . . . When I was a kid, "Put on your rubbers" had something to do with rainy days and galoshes.
Thankfully, educational field trips to the zoo are a thing of the past.
WpaE1zhFXXk

Mel
12-03-2013, 08:25 PM
By the time my Dad thought to try and have "The Talk" with me it was too late. Safe sex is a better approach. You can't stop kids, male or female, with raging hormones by telling them to abstain. Keep up the dialog and help them with their feelings and provide them with the "equipment" to prevent STD's and Pregnancy. Even when it's oral sex. Alarming rise in throat STD's going on now. Just my two pence.