With the faux-family values crowd in Pierre, it’s hard to tell if we’re in the 1950s or 1984.
The radical religious right who mistake the Legislature for Bible study bring us House Bill 1168, an effort to stamp out sex education. Lead sponsors Rep. Steven Haugaard (R-10/Sioux Falls) and Senator Phil Jensen (R-33/Rapid City) don’t title it that way: HB 1168 is labeled as “An Act to allow students to participate in sexuality education with parental permission.” It’s an act, all right, but the point is not to allow more kids to participate but to restrict more kids from getting basic facts. HB 1168 would add this one sentence to our curriculum statutes:
Only upon the written request of a student’s parent or legal guardian, may the student participate in any course, unit, class, series of classes, activity, or presentation pertaining to human sexuality, sex education, or sexual abstinence [House Bill 1168, posted 2016.01.28].
Only upon written request—great. Instead of an opt-out clause, where we say, “Parents, we’re doing sex ed with the seventh graders, so if you want your kids not to learn about how their bodies work and how to keep them clean, let us know, and we’ll send them to study hall instead,” HB 1168 creates an opt-in clause, in which parents have to actively permit their kids to receive such useful instruction. That means that not only will HB 1168 authorize Haugaard’s and Jensen’s culture-warrior constituents to yank their kids from sex ed class, but HB 1168 will also cause a whole bunch of forgetful kids with similarly forgetful parents (hmm, sounds like an important target audience for quality sex ed) to miss out, since only the kids who remember to get Mom or Dad’s signature and bring it to school will get to attend the sex ed lecture.
South Dakota is one of only eleven states that do not require some sort of sex education. South Dakota ranks 15th in syphilis rates, 16th in chlamydia, and 26th in gonorrhea. Hmm… maybe HB 1168 should be looking at helping more students learn about sexually transmitted diseases rather than giving their buttoned-up parents more cotton with which to stuff their kids’ ears.
Interestingly, South Dakota does require instruction in sexual abstinence, as part of a statute on character education brought to us by God- and sex-fearing Rep. Roger Hunt in 1997. By mentioning sexual abstinence, HB 1168 offers a fun little sop to those of us who recognize that abstinence education doesn’t work. But HB 1168 thus sets up an interesting situation in which schools will be unable to deliver curriculum mandated by state law to all students.
HB 1168 also provides another example of our legislative holy conservatives’ inability to translate their passionate beliefs into workable legislation. Rep. Haugaard and Senator Jensen can’t content themselves with a simple statement saying, “Parents can opt their kids out of sex ed lessons.” Instead they go ape with blanket permission for the kids to skip “any course, unit, class, series of classes, activity, or presentation” relating to nookie. HB 1168 would allow all sorts of kids to skip their entire semester Health class, which is required for graduation. If teachers of biology, psychology, sociology, or history plan to include some mention of human sexuality in their courses (and they very reasonably could), they’ll have to send out opt-in slips to all the kids at the beginning of the course and wait to begin instruction until students have returned their forms.
In other words, as often happens when you let the radical right make the rules, we throw our public education system into chaos.
House Bill 1168 is unwise on face, denying South Dakota students valuable health and safety education. Its sloppy wording also creates a paperwork hassle that upsets K-12 course planning. Vote it down and focus on teaching kids, not stroking the Radical Religious Right’s blindered agenda.
Related Reading:
- The Washington Post reports that Republican-led states are working harder to take local control away from school districts.
- A new CDC report finds that fewer than half of U.S. high schools and only one fifth of our middle schools are meeting CDC standards for sex ed.
- Health officials in Dallas County, Texas, have documented an instance of a male transmitting the Zika virus to a female via semen. Yup—Zika can be an STD, too.
As always, no price is too high to pay for the illusion of sexual purity in our young. Including pregnancy, STDs, and, now, Zika virus.
Perhaps, as long as we are pushing for “intelligent design” to be taught in science class, we can teach immaculate conception as “sex ed”?
How come STD rates are highest in the bible belt Christian conservative South? MN has lower STD rates than conservative SD. ROFL! SD can’t even beat MN in that!
In MN, my 5th grade daughter is being taught sex education in a public school. I put my signature on a paper permitting this. From what my daughter says there were just a few parents whose children did not stay in the classroom to learn this.
Oh, that progressive MN, the nerve of them! They’re just children. Maybe SD should take MNs lead and follow them, since MN has the lower rates of STDs.
And no, my daughter will not be having sex at 10 years old. Better to learn sex ed in the schools and from the parents rather than the media.
But isn’t an opt-out request and agreement request the same thing? The paper I signed for my daughter had both a permission and refusal signature line. I’m actually surprised there is not already a law requiring parental signature for sex ed in SD public schools today.
Cory and any other teachers out there, is sex ed being taught in the SD schools today and at what grade does it begin and there is no parental signature request form?
Republican HayBilly HateBill #1168 ? (thumb down)
Coming soon! HB DUH bans all science classes and replaces them with State mandated Bible study! “SD…we keep ’em dumb, diseased, pregnant and segregated! We LOVE our kids!” :(
Jenny, I believe the policy varies from school to school. Right now, local schools can do exactly what your Minnesota school does. As a truer conservative that Rep. Haugaard, I would argue that there is no need for HB 1168 because the status quo already allows school districts to achieve the goal of parental input on sex ed.
Please keep our children safe and informed by stopping this bill in it’s tracks.
During the 1990s over a number of years, Roger Hunt and others were trying to pass that abstinence bill, which they finally did. Every year they would bus in Christian school students to lobby and watch the vote on that bill from the gallery. It was late in the afternoon. I was up there in the gallery watching the debate, which started treading beyond PG-13 territory, and noticed two students, one male and one female, snuggling together there. I happened to notice the boy’s hand wandering up the young lady’s skirt as the legislators were yammering on and on about sex. I thought, “Welcome to the real world.” Old men talk about sex and the sixteen year olds are doing it. Who knew that a legislative debate on abstinence would provide an opportunity for sin?
As a health teacher in SD-including sexual health-I am appalled!!! In Sioux Falls we currently have an “opt-out” for parents who would prefer to teach sex Ed themselves ( I wonder if that really happens?) In the last 5 years, our school has probably had a total of 5 parents do that – most appreciate someone else starting that conversation for them!This seems unbelievably crazy to me!
Nancy, thanks for that classroom perspective! Just 5 opt-outs over 5 years? That suggests there’s no great clamor for a bill like this. I take it that opt-out policy is something your school board passed, just your local policy, right? What grades does your district do sex ed in? How many weeks in health class do you spend on the topic?
This idea in support of dangerous ignorance fits right in with opposition to vaccinations to prevent cervical cancer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPV_vaccines
The opponents of information on sex in schools harmonises well with the Islamic subjugation of women and girls being married at 13 or less or raped with impunity.
All you people are idiots! Get educated and then get jobs! Its a parents right to decide what is best for their children. My parents didn’t allow me to take sex ed and I’m married now, never had a STD or unwanted pregnancy. You all need to grow a brain and start doing your job as a parent instead of having the school system do it for you! You LAZY ignoramuses!
Hey, Terry, where do you deduce that anyone participating in this discussion lacks either education or employment or is not doing his or her job as a parent? Are you unable to talk policy without shouting irrelevant personal insults?
One person’s example is fine and dandy, but we’re talking statistics here, general trends over entire populations. Comprehensive sex education classes get more kids to avoid unwanted pregnancies and STDs. Not everyone is as smart, ambitious, or lucky as you, Terry. Let’s solve problems instead of looking for excuses to call people names.
It seems as if the real fear to folks like Ms. Lieberman is that their little darlings might hear a word that some parents cringe when hearing, vagina. http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/04/26/teacher-says-vagina-in-class-battle-creek-vword/83571076/
Get real like all the STD cases are due to the few kids who opt out of sex ed its more like the other way around. LAZY LAZY LAZY parents!!! Stop having us do your job for you!! Very Lazy! You people shouldn’t even have children! Well goodbye and good luck hope that having the school system do your job for you works out for you all;)
Stand down, insult queen. By no means do I as a parent surrender all of my parenting duties to my public school so I can put my feet up and watch Netflix.
If Terry will get over his anger and read what’s actually being said here, Terry will see that no one has claimed that all STD cases are due to a few kids opting out of sex ed. But statistically, sex ed means fewer STDs. Instead of shouting baseless insults at fellow citizens, I’d rather solve problems. Parental involvement solves problems. So does comprehensive sex ed.
Oh Please stop with the lies and the excuses for LAZY parenting. I work in the public schools and deal with people like you all the time! I would much rather deal with parents who are actually concerned with what their kids are learning than having to deal with lazy parents who complain about signing a piece of paper. If you can’t stand up for your rights then you don’t deserve rights! And its sad to say that most parents do not Care except to complain when other parents exercise theirs. Ashamed? Yes I believe so and you should be!
Terry, please, stop making stuff up. Come to my house and show me what lazy parenting you are talking about. One concrete example (other than my making pizza rolls for my little one ;-) ).
Really, you’re just here throwing vague, evidenceless accusations because you think it makes you sound tough. It really just makes you sound like you’re full of bull and unable to deal with evidence that outshouts your talk-radio karaoke.
chlamydia by state: good name for a band?
Oh, now, Leslie, stop trying to get us back to talking about statistics and research and science. This post is now about Terry’s personal rage and his personal conviction that all parents who disagree with him are moral reprobates worthy of his righteous scorn.