The Kansas State Board of Education is meeting at Wichita North High School beginning at 10 a.m. Tuesday. One agenda item is the quest by board member Kathy Martin (in photo) to mandate abstinence-only sex education.
Martin argues that “abstinence until marriage is the best thing for young people physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually.” No argument here. But given that most teens won’t wait that long, a responsible sex ed class should emphasize abstinence but also provide accurate information about ways to help prevent pregnancies and diseases (as is done in “abstinence-plus” education).
But the biggest concern about Martin’s plan is that she wants to tie abstinence-only instruction to accreditation, thereby forcing all districts to comply. Why shouldn’t local school boards be able to decide the best approach for their communities? Last month, you may recall, the board also said that districts should require their sex ed classes to be “opt in” — meaning that parents have to sign a release before students can take the classes — instead of “opt out.”
Do board conservatives no longer care about local control?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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24 Comments
Okaaay. Now it is the Abrams/Morris/Martin trio of idiots on the state BOE.When, oh when, will it ever end?
The Eagle only cares about local control when it comes to gambling and sex. Not taxes.
BlowJoe,
Your comparison would be apt if TABOR were a local proposal rather than a statewide one. Guess that distinction was too complicated for your Wingnut reptile brain to grasp.
As for Kathy Martin, well, public policy should be based on facts and research rather than someone’s opinion. The fact that she thinks something is right or wrong doesn’t make it so.
If she wants to deprive the youth of Kansas of the information they need to make informed decisions, that doesn’t say very much for her commitment to the creation of an educated citizenry. May I suggest, given Mrs. Martin’s apparent fondness for telling other people how to live their lives, that she may want to apply for the job of compliance officer in Park City: I hear there’s a vacant position.
My position still stands. The Eagle only wants people to have their input on issues like gambling and sex. Issues like Taxes and Judicial reform….oh gotta leave that to our “expert” legislature. I don’t mind the hypocrisy, typical for reptile liberal minds and their willing accomplices in the press….just wish they’d be honest about it.
Mr. Blow:Kindly give examples of “reptile liberal minds and their willing accomplices in the press” in Kansas.And since when would anybody leave anything to “experts in the Kansas Legislature”?That may be the biggest oxymoron I’ve ever heard!
Once again it is embarrassing to be a Kansan. You know I love my state, but we sure do leave ourselves open to worldwide ridicule. I wonder how many “adults” out there, with all the answers for our kids, waited until they were properly married? When two people decide that it is time, then “IT” is going to happen. At least we should give the kids sgood solid education about choices, including proper protection for them when they do decide that it is time to have sex.
Kids need to know as much as possible, including the reality of being sexually active. Let them watch a video of a woman giving birth in living color and sound and pictures of what sexually transmitted disease looks like (it worked for the military didn’t it?). We would get better results showing them what the real world is like than telling them to “just say no”. Showing the gore works pretty well in driver’s ed, why not sex ed?
In my daughter’s 10th grade sex ed class in 2001 in Fort Collins, CO an abstinence-only until marriage sex ed instructer from the local anti-abortion anti-birth control so-called crisis pregnancy center, told our youngsters that – and I quote, “Condoms are made to protect you from pregnancy not HIV.” – I was livid. That’s a dangerous deadly lie. I was there to correct that information for my daughter but no other parent knew that was said to their child. If their child becomes sexually active and contracts HIV because they were told condoms would not protect them from AIDS should not the parents have the right to sue the person who told them that? When parents begin to sue for their childs STD or for contracting AIDS because people like Martin and abstinence-only until marriage teachers lie about the effectiveness of condoms then maybe they will stop lying.
I documented the dangerous and deadly lies of this curriculum: http://www.lifeandlibertyforwomen.org/cpc/AlphaCenter103003.pdf and this curriculum and its presenters are no longer allowed in our public school district.
I was accepted as a member of the 2nd incarnation of the Health Curriculum Advisory Board. Last June the BOE adopted a curriculum for 10th grade that our committee wrote along with curriculum specialists in our district. We have copyrighted our work and other districts will be able to consider our curriculum for their district. http://www.psdschools.org/documentlibrary/downloads/Curriculum/Health_Curriculum_Advisory_Board/DRAFT_PSD_Health_Curriculum_Framework.pdf
Our committee was comprimised of both abstinence-only and abstinence based comprehensive supporters and we came to a consensus on an abstinence-based comprehensive sex education curriculum that stresses abstinence but also provides teens with medically accurate information on STDs, HIV, contraceptives and condoms. We talk about the media influence, healthy relationships, refusal skills and there’s appropriate role play. Teachers taught it this last fall and we are now gathering information from teachers, students, and parents about its success. With some minor tweaking it appears to be a right fit for our kids.
We are now finishing the seventh grade curriculum.
http://www.psdschools.org/documentlibrary/downloads/Curriculum/Health_Curriculum_Advisory_Board/7th_Grade_HCAB_Minutes/HCAB_Goals_and_Objectives.pdf
http://www.psdschools.org/documentlibrary/downloads/Curriculum/Health_Curriculum_Advisory_Board/7th_Grade_HCAB_Minutes/HCAB_Lesson_Titles_and_Sequence.pdf
We’ve been at it for over 2 years now.
I’m scared for the teens of Kansas if they are left only with a curriclum that teaches nothing but abstinence-only until marriage – and a curriculum that gives our kids deliberatly inaccurate information that will be with them the rest of their lives. Theirs nothing caring, Christian, moral, ethical or even “pro-life” about that.
I was born in KC Mo and my father in KS. These days I’m ashamed of both states and how they’ve responded to abortion and sex education.
Peggy Loonan, founder and executive director Life and Liberty for Women and mother to 20 year-old Mindy and 15 year-old Molly.
http://www.lifeandlibertyforwomen.orgpeggy@lifeandlibertyforwomen.org
Sounds like a great curriculum, Peggy! Cudos to you for making such a great effort to educate kids! There is no such thing as too much knowledge.
Peggy,What a concept: teach children about the dangers of unprotected sex, and how to make the right choice by giving them the information they need. Sadly, this is Kansas, where humans suddenly popped up from the dirt. Most other states and countries, we evolved from apes, but not here.
With that in mind, how do you expect the board of education to even recognize there is such a thing as HIV, let alone teach the precautions necessary to prevent developing the disease?
Sex education is not about sex, per say, it is about life choices, and the good and bad things that can happen when the children are either given all the information they need, when it then becomes their educated choice, or feeding them pablum, and letting them sink or swim on their own. Which do you want for your children, Kathy Martin.
Fact: 60% of teens are sexually active by their senior year of high school. Fact: Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are the fastest growing population of infected people living with HIV/AIDS – accounting for almost half of new infections.
But hey, this is Kansas. Let’s just ignore reality and pretend sex and disease and pregancy don’t exist. It’s much easier that way, right?
I’m embarrassed to live in this state.
An example? OK, virtually every elected Democrat. The Eagle, KMUW, Winfield Courier, Salina Journal, Topeka Cap Journal, KCStar….enough for you?
Wow, look everybody, BlowJoe made a list of people he doesn’t like!
BlowJoe, nobody here is impressed by your word salads. Try making an ARGUMENT. You know, complete with evidence and everything!
It’s sad that just because Kathy Martin isn’t getting her “bell rung” that she feels no one else should be able to…
First they want to turn science classes into propaganda mills, and now it’s sex ed classes. Soon we’re going to hear about how calculus and trigonometry are just “theories,” and that biblical math (how to figure your tithe) is all our kids need to know. These people think that education is all about what people shouldn’t learn.
I wonder if Connie Morris would have a comprehinse sex education class when she was in school, maybe she wouldn’t have spent several years dropping acid being a whore, making porno, and breaking up marriages. PS how do you lose an election to someone with this kind of background, sort of like losing to Marion Barry
Jed, totally. And then they have the gall to call liberals ‘relativists.’
Pancho Villa,Damn–you really know how to hurt a wingnut.
“PS how do you lose an election to someone with this kind of background, sort of like losing to Marion Barry”
We’ll find a way.
On, no, CF – they have the TRUTH. Liberals are relativists for questioning, exploring, offering theories that are capable of growing and changing with new information. Republicans have one truth, and only one truth, even if it is wrong. And that rule works for every subject, including political science.
Welcome back, Jed! It’s been lonely here without you! Hope you’re doing well and feeling brand new.
So who exactly waits till they get married to have sex, no one I know in my circle of friends is a virgin or waited till they got married same goes for my family. I would suspect that many of the readers and posters on this blog had premartial sex that being the case. why would the BOE want to enact a policy that is doomed to failure because few actually will follow abstinace only.
I find it amusing to see the number of kids from strict church-going religious families who end up pregnant.
Jed – “biblical math” – PI = 3.0
Hi Da,Yeah, survived my surgery (despite occasional wishes to the contrary), don’t feel brand new yet (being held together with surgical tape and velcro), but getting closer daily.Missed you guys! Hope to get back here on a daily basis soon.Jed
Glad you’re back, Jed!
Pancho, I have a friend who waited until she was married to have sex, came back from her honeymoon still a virgin.