(Erin Mulvaney, Houston Chronicle)
Some Houston-area school districts are shifting away from traditional abstinence-only sex education classes this school year, part of a statewide trend that has prompted concern among some parents that kids are learning too much, too soon about sex.
The Spring Branch and Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District are the latest in the area to adopt an “abstinence-plus” program. Seventh-graders will take the 12-lesson program created by the University of Texas Prevention Research Center in Houston that teaches about contraception, unplanned pregnancy and condom use, in addition to abstinence.
In Harris County, 10 school districts and the KIPP charter school system have adopted or are adopting similar programs, as are districts in Austin, Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Plano.
At a recent Cypress-Fairbanks ISD informational meeting, some parents expressed concern over the new content, calling it against their “moral fiber” and a “bad choice” for students and school districts. However, fewer than 10 parents out of more than 200 at the meeting had doubts about the program, said Debra Hill, coordinator of secondary science at Cypress Fairbanks ISD. Parents can choose to opt their children out of the class.
Hill said surveys completed by middle school parents last February showed that 55 out of 60 who attended an information meeting felt comfortable with the curriculum. Public schools do not have to provide sex-education programs, but if they do, the Texas Education Code requires that they stress abstinence as the preferred choice for unmarried teens and devote more time to it than to other behaviors.
(Read more of this story at Houston Chronicle)
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