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RALEIGH Sex education in North Carolina public schools, which for more than a decade has primarily focused on abstinence, will soon include information about contraceptives and preventing sexually transmitted diseases.
Since 1995, the state has mandated that schools provide courses that stressed delaying sex until marriage. To offer more comprehensive sex education under existing law, school districts have to go through a lengthy process that includes public scrutiny of instructional materials. As a result, only about 10 districts offer comprehensive courses.
But the state House on Thursday narrowly approved legislation that would have schools add information to the abstinence-based curriculum. Districts would have to begin offering the broader information in 2010, in lessons for students in seventh through ninth grades.
Parents could remove their children from the more comprehensive parts of the classes.
The House passed the bill 60-55, sending it to Gov. Bev Perdue for her signature.
“She'll review the legislation thoroughly as it comes to her desk, but she is expected to sign it,” said Perdue spokeswoman Chrissy Pearson.
The measure divided Democrats and Republicans, who said the current law allows students to get plenty of information about contraceptive methods and their effectiveness.
Despite the focus on abstinence, North Carolina has consistently ranked ninth in the nation in teenage pregnancy rates. The bill's supporters said schools should offer expanded sex education as students prepare to make some of the most important decisions in their lives.
“What we believe is giving more medically accurate information will delay first sex for many of these teens,” Rep. Susan Fisher, an Asheville Democrat, said in an interview. “The more honest information that kids get, the less likely they are to engage in activities that make them more likely to get STIs (sexually transmitted infections) and get pregnant.”
Republicans weren't buying it, saying the changes would allow districts to include details that go beyond the bounds of legislators' intentions. The bill passed with no Republican votes.
Attaching expanded sex education to an abstinence-based curriculum will be like combining oil and water, said Bill Brooks, president of the N.C. Family Policy Council, a conservative group.
“They don't really mix,” he said.
Proponents of comprehensive sex education spent years trying to reverse the 1995 decision, saying abstinence-based education deprived students of knowledge necessary to prevent diseases and pregnancies.
This year, supporters enlisted students to tell legislators that abstinence-based sex education is inadequate.
Lynn Bonner: 919-829-4821
