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The New York Civil Liberties Union
(NYCLU) recently released a report highlighting problems with the sexual
education curriculum of 82 public school districts in New York.
The report, titled “ Birds, Bees and
Bias: How Absent Sex Ed Standards Fail New York’s Students, “ states that
although 93 percent of school districts provided information on HIV and AIDS as
required by a 1987 New York State Law, only 56 percent of the information was
complete and scientifically accurate. According to Johanna Miller, assistant
advocacy director of the NYCLU, the disparity is due to a lack of
state-established standards for sexual education. Miller noted that the
districts were using materials that were no longer accurate on HIV and relying
on information pulled together from the Internet, because no one had said they
should not.
Also, the report states that the
school districts were using “value-laden materials when teaching controversial
topics.” About 35 percent of districts used textbooks with antiabortion biases
and some referred to fetuses and embryos as “babies.” The NYCLU recommends that
the state decree a comprehensive sexual education program that teaches
abstinence, pregnancy, and STD prevention methods such as condoms.
In response to the NYCLU’s report,
Dennis Tompkins, chief of external affairs at New York State Education
Department, stated that the department would carefully review the report and
its recommendations as the goal of the department is to make sure that students
get accurate and sound health information.
The NYCLU report can be found at: http://www.nyclu.org/files/publications/NYCLU_SexEd_report.pdf.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
