Schools continue to be subject to pressure by sex ed opponents who, despite data about the effectiveness of comprehensive sex education, are increasingly idiotic.
Schools continue to be subject to pressure by sex ed opponents who, despite data about the effectiveness of comprehensive sex education, are increasingly idiotic. Lissandra Melo/Shutterstock

Earlier this week, a judge in Fresno, California ruled against an abstinence-only sex education program, saying that the school district violated state law by failing to provide adequate instruction on sexual health and HIV prevention.

I find this refreshing.

Typically, the headlines we see about sexual education in today’s classrooms propagate mistrust and fears of “indoctrination.” Sure, the decision in California only applies to 40,000 students in one school district, but what is important is that Fresno County Superior Court Judge Donald Black is calling into question California’s 11-year-old law on sex education (which requires that schools teach abstinence as the only sure way to prevent pregnancy and STIs, but also give students “medically accurate information” on contraceptives) and sending a message to other schools that our youth need comprehensive and medically accurate health information that is required by law.

As an educator immersed in sex education for more than 25 years, I have seen an alarming rise in the number of attacks on comprehensive sex education. In the early 1990s, when HIV became a health crisis, many states and school districts recognized the need to provide youth with information to keep them safe. So what changed?

Since the 1990s, opponents decided that putting pressure on local officials and school boards was more effective than putting pressure on the issue nationally. Abstinence-only programming continues to be prevalent across the nation because of skillful misinformed marketing and federal funding. Just last month, Congress passed a bipartisan $200 billion Medicare funding fix bill that included a two-year extension of the Title V Sec. 510 program, which is an abstinence-only education program. The more data about the effectiveness of comprehensive sex education and the contrasting poor outcomes for abstinence-only education (including higher rates of STIs and less use of condoms) that becomes available, the more rabidly idiotic the anti-sex education movement becomes.

We know that parents overwhelmingly support comprehensive sex ed. We know that teachers overwhelmingly support comprehensive sex ed. As the data and support clearly align and tell us that giving kids comprehensive information that keeps them safe is the way to go, the opposition becomes desperate (seen here, here, and here). As a result, sex ed continues to be threatened in states across the country, and teachers must find ways to think creatively around the restrictions. I lead education efforts across four states (Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho and Washington) that comprise Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands, and in my experience I have never seen the topic of sex ed as politicized as it is today. This year alone has seen many legislative barriers around sex ed in our region.

Last month in Alaska, lawmakers moved ahead with Senate Bill 89, which would prohibit Planned Parenthood from teaching sex ed in public schools. The bill died this year, but will be brought up in the 2016 legislative session. In Hawaii, amidst strong opposition, the state Board of Education will vote next week on whether or not to institute a new sex-ed policy that requires schools to provide comprehensive and medically accurate sex ed to all students. The opposition to this policy and the lies being perpetuated are astonishing.

For example, I recently met with a parent in Hawaii who had been given incorrect information by the opposition about what her child would be learning if she attended one of our classes. She was told, “Our kids should be taught nothing more than reproduction and the benefits of abstinence. The explicit sex education curriculum that is being proposed and is being taught in other states is pornography and is child abuse.” After reviewing the actual curriculum, she said, in disbelief, “they’re just lying.” Yep. They are.

This month, the Institute for Women's Policy Research ranked Idaho last in the nation when it comes to a host of issues, including reproductive rights and health and well-being. The lack of a state requirement for schools to provide sex education contributes to this low score.

On a more positive note, Washington state’s Healthy Youth Act, which mandates comprehensive sex education, continues to perform well. As of 2011, the teen pregnancy rate is the lowest it has ever been. Unfortunately, you can’t say the same for states like Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, where the one thing those states have in common is abstinence-only curriculum.

While the fight for comprehensive sex education continues, what remains the same is that teens in our country will learn about sex regardless of the policies in place. What we (and, by the way, their parents) want is to ensure that they have the best resources at their disposal.

It is our job to provide community education via our highly qualified professional outreach educators, online information, in-person meetings with our health care providers, and social media. According to the Guttmacher Institute, online sources aren’t always the most accurate. Of 177 sexual health sites examined, 46 percent of those addressing contraception and 35 percent of those addressing abortion contained inaccurate information.

We see the growing popularity in sex-ed apps, too—like Hookup, Sexual Education, and SexPositive, as well as Planned Parenthood’s online tools—to engage kids. While these are great resources and a new approach to education, technology is just one aspect of a successful model of comprehensive education; a well-trained adult or peer educator who teaches medically accurate, inclusive sexual health education in the classroom makes all the difference. Not to mention more rulings like the one we saw this week in Fresno.

Carole Miller is the chief learning officer at Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands.