Florida authorities urge schools to limit sex education classes

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Some school districts in Florida are returning to a more comprehensive approach to Sex education in favour of abstinence-based teaching due to pressure from government authorities which have deemed certain lessons on contraception, anatomy and consent unsuitable for schoolchildren.

Florida Department of Education officials, led by an appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, have ordered some of the state's largest school districts to cut their lesson plans not only on sexual activity, but also on contraceptives, human development, abuse and domestic violence, as first reported by the Orlando Sentinel.

The change reflects a nationwide push in conservative states, what children can learn about themselves and their bodies. Advocates are concerned that young people are not being reliably taught about adolescence, safe sex or relationship violence at a time when sexually transmitted infections on the rise and access to abortion is becoming increasingly restricted.

Due to recent changes in state law, the Florida Department of Education is now responsible for approving school districts' reproductive health and disease education curricula when they use teaching materials other than state-designated textbooks.

About a dozen school districts across Florida have been ordered by authorities to limit their sex education classes, said Elissa Barr, a public health professor at the University of North Florida and chair of the Florida Healthy Youth Alliance, which advises school districts on developing and implementing comprehensive sex education programs.

Barr says comprehensive sex education is about more than just reducing teen pregnancy and protecting young people from HIV, at a time when Florida reports more HIV diagnoses than nearly any other state, according to a nonprofit health policy research organization. KFF.

“Sex education is prevention of sexual abuse. It is prevention of violence in relationships. And it helps young people build healthier relationships and actually delay sexual initiation,” Barr told the Associated Press. “We still have 1 in 4 teenagers at least once before the age of 20. So if we cut back on information and education about contraception, we are really doing young people a disservice. It is very damaging.”

Studies have shown that comprehensive sex education leads to teenagers waiting longer to have sex for the first time, reduces teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, and prevents sexual abuse.

A spokesman for the Florida Department of Education defended the state’s approach, emphasizing the importance of abstinence and recent changes in State law which require schools to teach that “reproductive roles” are “binary, stable and unchanging.”

“Florida law requires schools to emphasize the benefits of sexual abstinence as an expected standard and the consequences of teen pregnancy,” said Sydney Booker, the department's communications director. “A state government should not emphasize or encourage sexual activity among children or minors and therefore has the right to emphasize abstinence.”

In public schools in Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale and is the sixth-largest school district in the country, state officials told the district that illustrations of reproductive anatomy and demonstrations on how to use contraception “should not be included at any grade level,” according to a staff memo obtained by the AP.

Florida Department of Education officials also asked the district to remove the words “abuse, consent and domestic violence” from a proposed lesson for first graders and replace it with wording considered more age-appropriate, such as “talk to a trusted adult if they feel uncomfortable.”

Barr said the concerns raised about the curriculum were “inconsistent” from district to district and were communicated verbally, not via email.

A representative of Orange County Public Schools, which includes Orlando, said the district made its curriculum changes in response to “verbal feedback” from the department.

“The FDOE strongly recommended that the district use the text adopted by the state,” said district spokesman Michael Ollendorff.

Florida law does not require schools to offer sex education. If they do offer classes, they must emphasize abstinence as an “expected standard.” Parents in Florida have the right to exclude their children from these classes, although polls show that the general public overwhelmingly supports sex education in schools.

“Leave politics out of it, leave religion out of it, and really focus on the science and what works for young people,” Barr said. “We have the answer, and that is comprehensive sex education.”

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Kate Payne is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-reported issues.