Bill widens scope of sex education curriculum
March 3, 2009
Castro and state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, filed legislation that would require Texas schools that offer sex education to provide students with comprehensive, medically accurate information about sexual health and relationships.
Written by Brandi Grissom, The El Paso Times
AUSTIN -- When it comes to teenagers, sex and preventing pregnancy and disease, more information is better, a group of Democratic lawmakers said Monday.
"Teen pregnancy in Texas . . . is literally an epidemic," state Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said.
Castro and state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, filed legislation that would require Texas schools that offer sex education to provide students with comprehensive, medically accurate information about sexual health and relationships.
More than 19,000 teenagers gave birth in Texas in 2004, according to the State Department of Health Services. They accounted for about 5 percent of births statewide that year.
In El Paso County, more than 6 percent -- or about 870 births -- were to teen mothers in 2004, the most recent year for which statistics were available.
Under current law, schools are required to devote more attention to abstinence from sexual activity than to any other behavior.
El Paso Independent School District provides abstinence-based sexual education, said Don Disney, who works in health and physical education.
In middle and high schools, courses focus on abstinence, Disney said, but students also learn about contraceptives and sexually transmitted diseases.
"We would be remiss if we didn't give kids information that could save their lives," he said.
Parents can opt that their children not be in the program, but only about 3 percent do, Disney said.
Under the Democrats' proposal, abstinence would still be stressed, but schools would also have to teach students about birth control and preventing diseases such as chlamydia and HIV.
Parents still could choose not to let their children participate.
The Paso del Norte Health Foundation offers sex education to teens during and after school. Senior program director Michael Kelly said providing children more information is helpful but probably would not reduce teen pregnancy rates.
"I think it's unlikely access to some information alone is going to facilitate behavior change," Kelly said. "Everyone knows exercise is good for you, but not everyone does it."
Real change, he said, requires a combination of parental and community support, and the young person's own commitment to remain abstinent.
Roxanne Tyroch lives on the West Side and has a son who is a freshman in high school. She said she has mixed feelings about schools teaching more than abstinence when it comes to sex.
Though she believes in abstinence, Tyroch said, students should also be taught about sex from a scientific standpoint.
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