Friday, September 19, 2008

Kindergarteners, Sex, and Dispelling Stupid

I keep seeing "Obama totally wanted to teach sex ed to 5 and 6 year olds - read the bill yourself and see its true, libtards!"

So I did. The bill can be seen here:

Full Text of SB0099.

Let's look at the bill:

Each class or course in comprehensive sex
14 education offered in any of grades K 6 through 12 shall
15 include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted
16 infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread
17 of HIV AIDS.


Now, let's be very specific - "each class *in comprehensive sex education* shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases".

In other words: "if the class is on comprehensive sex education", then "it shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases."

It's an if-then system. If you teach *comprehensive* sex education in a class, then you must include how to prevent HIV/AIDS. The other sets in the beginning of the bill read the same way: if you teach sex education, then you must say that abstinence is an effective method of preventing the above.

Look at Section 2: "All sex education courses THAT" (emphasis added), then it goes on to say what they will do. And what's under section 2, line 12?

(2) All (1) course material and instruction shall be age and developmentally appropriate.


So now we continue our "if-then" clause. *If* you teach a sex education class, *then* it must be age and developmentally appropriate. *If* the class is decided to teach comprehensive sex education, *then* you will include HIV prevention and other things.

If you decide *not* to do "comprehensive sex education", there are other things that are covered - including teaching students not to exploit each other or how to avoid a predator.

So I'm sorry - but to anyone who makes laws, or is a lawyer, this bill is pretty clear. There are age appropriate things that are up to the districts to decide what that means. If they teach sex ed, then these are the rules they must follow in their teaching.

Your claim that "OMG this bill totally instructs teacher to teach sex to 5 year olds" falls apart. This bill gives a list of things that can be taught to children, including:

* HIV prevention
* sexual harrassment prevention
* abstinence is best
* how to avoid predators
* how to not be a predator

Any teacher would go down the list and go "OK, I'm a 1st grade teacher. Well, I don't need to worry about HIV prevention. Or abstinence. Hm - how to avoid predators, that's *age appropriate*."

Hopefully I've broken this down enough so people won't make that inaccurate claim again.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Okay, who benefits the most from saying that teaching children to avoid sex offenders is an awful thing?

...

Sleazy political commentators, of course. Did I give them impression I meant some other group?

Between Palin's opposition to rape kits and now this, there's some really creepy subtext.