Utah laws limit sex ed in schools
When the bell rings for class on sex education day in Utah schools, not all students are going to be there. Utah State Law requires written parental consent for students to receive education concerning contraception and other sexual topics beyond the focus of abstinence.
Margaret Rose, state health education specialist, said that is basically the way it has always been. Prior to 2000, parental consent laws concentrated on contraception, but after legislation carried by Sen. Bill Wright, R-Elberta, Utah, have expanded to include pretty much anything relating to human sexuality, she said.
As noted in the Utah State Secondary Health Core Curriculum, the intricacies of intercourse, sexual stimulation and erotic behavior cannot be taught. Furthermore, homosexuality, contraceptive methods and sexual relations outside of marriage cannot be advocated in any way.
For Loraine Pace, Logan’s representative to the Utah Legislature, that’s perfectly fine.
“I believe in parental consent in things that are very personal,” she said.
Pace said she never gave consent for her children to receive public sex education. She taught them herself so they would have an open learning experience, free of embarrassment, she said.
Although parental guidance is the best option, some parents don’t have either the time or comfort level to teach their children about sex, Pace said. Even under such circumstances, it would make more sense to have a physician teach the subject to students instead of a teacher who isn’t necessarily qualified, she said.
No matter what, students should have the opportunity for an abstinence-based sex education, provided there is parental consent, Pace said.
Rose said she agrees that parental consent is important. Sometimes the issue is more with the messenger than the message, she said. But schools have an important role in addressing public health concerns, such as prevention, she said.
A strong abstinence message is key in the core curriculum, Rose said.
“I hope with all my heart and soul that students choose to remain abstinent until after marriage, or at least until they’re adults,” she said.
But it is necessary to go beyond abstinence, Rose said. Students need to learn other preventative measures.
“Many youth won’t use the information immediately, but they won’t use something like calculus immediately either,” Rose said.
Teaching only abstinence and not other preventative methods is inconsistent with other subjects taught in schools, she said.
“We don’t withhold information in anything else we do in education,” Rose said.
Some students are currently not practicing abstinence or don’t intend to in the near future, Rose said. She stressed the urgency for education on prevention of teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and AIDS via contraception.
“Many youth need the information immediately. Many of them needed it yesterday,” Rose said.
According to the Utah Department of Health, the risk percentages for teens as compared to the population as a whole remain consistent even with the more stringent parental consent prerequisites.
The United States Surgeon General’s Web site, located at www.surgeongeneral.gov, said studies show that talking about sex and preventative measures in the classroom doesn’t lead teenagers to have sex earlier, but that it does make them more likely to use protection when they do decide to have sex.
Rose said the relationship between the success of prevention and current laws concerning parental consent is minor. More drastic measures would have to be taken before there would be a direct relationship in that way, she said.
“If we wiped out sex education altogether, undoubtedly teen pregnancy and STDs would go up,” Rose said. “But that’s just what some people are trying to do.”
According to the provisions of the Utah State Office of Education, individual districts have flexibility in choosing guest speakers on sexuality for their classes, training teachers and adopting various programs. Senate Bill 71, carried by Wright, is working to move control from the state entirely to the districts. The bill is constructed in a way that would give districts the option of doing away with sex education.
Rose said most of the state doesn’t seem to have a problem with sex education. Less than one percent of parents won’t give consent to their children to learn about sex in school, she said.
Melissa Stuart, a health teacher at Sky View High School, said currently only two students-sisters-were not given parental consent to learn about contraceptives this year.
Those students will be discreetly given a place to study during the time the class discusses contraception, she said.
Sometimes it’s the students, not the parents, who don’t want to learn about sex, Stuart said.
Stuart stresses abstinence and teaches about teen pregnancy, rape, STDs and AIDS, she said. Planned Parenthood does a guest lecture on contraception for the students at Sky View, she said.
Rose said students at Utah State University should be conscious of the fact that they aren’t exempt from the risks that come with sexual behavior. They should reflect on their own knowledge of sex to see if it is adequate, she said. Students should become active voters so their opinions concerning education can be heard, she said.
“Knowledge of sex doesn’t happen magically just because they popped themselves on a college campus,” Rose said.