TAMPA, Fla. — Mackenzie Valenza simply began her first 12 months in excessive school.
So, in addition to excessive school stage math, science, english and historical past the newly minted Sarasota County freshman can even be getting a brand new stage of sexual well being training.
She welcomes it.
“I feel like we should talk about safe sex practices and how to make sure before you decide you want to engage in something like this, you’re ready,” she informed us lately.
But in Florida, whereas legal guidelines mandating well being training embrace teen relationship and illness management, Investigative Reporter Katie LaGrone found there’s no statewide curriculum for sex training.
As a outcome, what and the way Florida students are taught about sexual and reproductive well being in public faculties is left to particular person school boards to approve insurance policies, school principals to interpret them and instructors who, in the end, drill all of it down for students.
“Sex education in Florida public schools is very inconsistent,” defined Professor Dr. Elissa Barr of the University of North Florida. Dr. Barr has been finding out sex eduction insurance policies for greater than twenty years.
“Because it’s not consistent we have kids in our state who are receiving quality sex education and learning the skills and resources and information to really protect themselves and advocate for themselves. Then we have other counties where kids aren’t getting that information,” Dr. Barr stated.
A map her workforce created utilizing information supplied by Florida’s Department of Education, confirmed simply how blended sex training curriculums are throughout Florida with insurance policies assembly one in all three classes.
– Comprehensive sex training– consists of information about human growth, anatomy and reproductive well being, contraception, childbirth, STDs, HIV/AIDS.
– Abstinence Plus- emphasizes the advantages of abstinence because the anticipated customary but in addition instructs students on making accountable selections to shield their well being, and transmission of illnesses together with some dialogue about barrier strategies.
– Abstinence Only– emphasizes abstinence because the anticipated customary with restricted dialogue on different elements of sexual well being.
According to the map, the vast majority of Florida school districts train abstinence plus or complete sex training. There are at the moment (6) school districts in Florida which can be funded by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to supply complete sexual well being training. But roughly one-third (20) of school districts in FL nonetheless establish as abstinence solely school districts.
“I’m as surprised as you,” stated Dr. Barr when requested about these district insurance policies.
Studies show abstinence solely instruction doesn’t forestall teenagers from having sex.
A 2019 youth threat conduct examine performed by the Centers for Disease Control discovered by 12 grade, greater than half of Florida teenagers have already engaged in sexual activity.
Chlamydia charges amongst teenagers in Florida are additionally 4 instances increased than the nationwide common.
When requested about teen delivery charges in Florida, “in counties where they have abstinence only policies, we do see higher teen birth rates,” defined Dr. Barr.
In Escambia County, an abstinence solely school district, a 16-year-old’s being pregnant made nationwide headlines this week after a Judge there dominated the teenager isn’t “sufficiently mature” for an abortion.
While it’s unclear if the kids attends a public school, in response to questions concerning the district’s abstinence solely curriculum, a district spokesperson responded by e-mail, “we are respectful of parental rights as we follow state guidelines regarding health education.”
For years, Florida advocates have been pushing choice makers to undertake extra complete sex training statewide.
“It’s unfair that the quality of sex ed you get depends on where in Florida you are born and raised,” stated Amy Weintraub of Progress Florida, a reproductive rights advocacy group.
Add in the state’s new Parental Rights in Education Law, which bans discuss of gender identification amongst some elementary-aged students and any content material deemed not age-appropriate, and advocates worry classes on sexual and reproductive well being in Florida will undergo.
“A lot of teachers are really pulling back,” stated Takeate King Pang with the Women’s Foundation of Florida.
Last month, the school board in Miami Dade first accepted, then rejected, then accepted once more a brand new sequence of sex ed textbooks after a small group of residents questioned if the center and excessive school stage books violated the state’s new regulation.
Alex Serrano, who represents the Miami Dade chapter for County Citizens Defending Freedom, a gaggle largely behind e-book challenges in school libraries, spoke on behalf of residents involved the brand new textbooks violated the state’s new regulation.
“Much of the content is not age appropriate, usurps parental rights and is scientifically not inaccurate and not factual,” he informed the board on the time,” he stated in the course of the school board assembly.
Back in Sarasota County, final month school board members approved this 12 months’s well being training curriculum which, for top schoolers will embrace instruction on avoiding being pregnant, STD’s and the results of sexual relationships.
But throughout the identical board assembly, the district’s superintendent informed board members concerning the district’s customary for sex training in faculties, “we have chosen abstinence,” stated Dr. Brennan Asplen. [A district spokesperson would not elaborate or explain Dr. Asplen’s statement. Instead we were directed to the district’s approved plan.]
Before Mackenzie Valenza will get any excessive school sex ed, her mother could have to signal a kind permitting her to take part. The district adopted opt-in insurance policies a couple of years in the past. If students don’t have a signed kind turned in, the default will probably be for students not to get any sexual well being instruction in any respect at school.
Valenza’s mother referred to as it “tragic,” and her 14-year-old daughter referred to as it “disappointing.”
“High school is meant to prepare you for adulthood. All your teachers will tell you that we’re preparing you for adulthood, we’re preparing you for adulthood. Ok, but are you preparing me for that part of it,” she stated.