The Birds and the Bees

    While looking for an interesting subject to write about, I came upon a story on the Washington Post about a Texas High School with Chlamydia Outbreak.  Sadly the story at first did not surprise me; teenagers having sex, it happens.  The surprise came when it was stated that the only sex education given at the school was abstinence only education. REALLY?!  I was under the assumption that by now all schools taught their students about the consequences of having unprotected sex.  With all the stories on the news about citizens demanding change such as renaming schools with confederate-linked names, how are citizens not ensuring teens are set up for success with regards to sex education?

According to the Guttmacher Institute in Texas:

• -       Sex education is not required and if taught abstinence must be stressed. 
• -       Contraception is not taught.
• -       Communication between families about sex is not taught.
• -       Sex education is not required to be medically correct.

    Could the chlamydia outbreak have been prevented if teens were better educated?  There are those that may argue that by educating teens then we encourage them to go out and have sex.  And yes some will go out and do just that, but at least they will be armed with the tools they need to avoid contracting STDs or committing to a lifetime of raising a child before their high school graduation.  According to the TexasFreedom Network in 2011 Texas ranked 3^rd highest in the nation for teen birthrate and 2^nd highest in the nation for repeat teen birthrate. 

This is how we compare to the U.S. (information provided by the CDC):

The data speaks for itself!

    The good news is that Texas is gradually increasing sex education throughout school districts.  In just 3 years the percentage of school districts that adopted to teach abstinence plus (Information about contraception and condoms taught while still emphasizing abstinence) increased from 3.6% to 25.4%. 

    Texas is on the right track but we need to do better.  We need to focus on the issues that our really affecting our kids and continue to push school districts to address the topics that really matter!  While we put all this effort into renaming schools we are allowing the withholding of much needed information for our Texas youth. 

They deserve better!!