NC School District Endorses 'Abstinence Until Marriage' for Sex Ed
by Jim Brown and Jody Brown
January 14, 2004
(AgapePress) - A large North Carolina school district has dumped its comprehensive sex-education program.
By a 5-3 vote, the Wake County School Board adopted a new policy that requires school employees to promote abstinence until marriage as the standard in sex education. The medically-accurate curriculum encourages abstinence, discourages contraceptive use and homosexual behavior, and includes information on sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) and the failure rates of contraceptives.
The new policy for "Healthful Living Education" specifically states that members of the school system staff will be limited to teaching that "abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage is the expected standard for all school-age children and that a mutually faithful monogamous heterosexual relationship in the context of marriage is the best lifelong means of avoiding sexually-transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS."
Board member Ron Margiotta, an abstinence advocate, says the new policy is more encompassing. "We do speak to the kids about all of the STDs. We do speak to them about the biology, about their body make-ups and reproduction systems," he says. "But ... we're very specific regarding referrals for abortion or passing out of contraceptives. Those things cannot be done by any of the employees."
According to Margiotta, the district's old sex-education program was detrimental to students. He explains that a portion of the material involved a questionable assignment for students.
"Part of the curriculum [at the high school level] became a class project for a group of children to go to a supermarket or a drugstore ... and shop for condoms," he says. The students were also required to note closing times of stores where condoms could be purchased so that, as Margiotta puts it, "in the event you needed a condom, you'd know where you could go for a late-hour [purchase]."
"In my humble opinion, this encourages rather than discourages sex," the school board member says.
The Wake County School Board also voted to eliminate lessons on diversity and tolerance for homosexuality.
