Michigan Puts Teeth in New Abstinence Education Requirements
by Jim Brown
July 28, 2004
(AgapePress) - School districts in Michigan that refuse to stress the importance of abstinence until marriage could be penalized one percent of their state funding.Under a new Michigan law signed last month by Governor Jennifer Granholm, schools are required to teach students that abstinence until marriage is 100 percent preventative and helps build relationships and self-esteem. State Representative John Stahl, a main sponsor of the law, says the law is intended to combat the state's alarming rate of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and teen pregnancies.
"We know that condoms don't prevent much of the viruses, such as the human papillomavirus [HPV]. And what [that virus] does to these young girls? Condoms don't have any stopping power for that at all, [as] a preventative measure," he says. "It makes your heart go out to these girls -- and 25 percent of the girls that contract that [HPV virus] end up with cervical cancer."
The new state law allows parents to file complaint with an advisory board when districts fail to promote abstinence. Stahl emphasizes the benefits of such accountability.
"The parents did not have a process where they could complain to the Department of Education. And now that each school district is going to be held accountable for abstinence being taught -- and not just basically how to have sex or how to have safe sex -- it's going to have an alternative stressing."
Not wishing to be perceived as negative, the Michigan lawmaker notes that many of the school districts in the state were already providing for parental accountability -- "but many were not," he says.
Other provisions of the new law require that schools notify parents in advance of sex-ed lessons, giving them an opportunity to review materials and excuse their children from the courses; and that parents make up the majority of district boards that determine the curriculum for the sex education classes.
