Comprehensive Sex Ed - Tried, True, and Supported

Parents support comprehensive sex education. This fact has been shown — time and time again — despite a vocal and well-funded minority who push for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. This time, it’s Floridians who overwhelmingly support comprehensive sex education. More than 90 percent believe sex education that includes information about condoms should be taught in public schools, a number that closely mirrors the national statistics on this issue. These numbers should be seen as a clear mandate to politicians in all states, yet many continue to ignore the problem.Some politicians have taken initiative, however, such as those in Connecticut who recently drafted a bill that would authorize the state Department of Education to establish a grant program to pay for medically accurate health education for school districts that seek to participate. Opponents of the bill naturally favor abstinence-only programming instead, claiming that teaching teens to wait to have sex and teaching about condoms are mutually exclusive practices.Yet teaching about condoms is in dire need, as one editorial from Milwaukee affirms. Sobered by the fact that the city ranks seventh in the nation for teen pregnancy, editors at the Milwaukee Journal Sentential asked parents to “imagine this is your daughter” as an unsettling reminder that teen pregnancy is a problem that affects everyone, a sentiment that Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin quickly seconded .Perhaps if parents were to imagine the effects of poor sexuality education on their son or daughter, more of the 90 percent majority could be galvanized to action.