If you walked out of the TCHS Health and Safety class thinking you know all there is to know about sex, think again.
Our school would benefit from taking a close look at a case out of the Clovis Unified School District where, in 2012, the district was sued over their sex education policies. Clovis was eventually held liable for legal fees due to misinformation and biased information taught in its sex ed course. Unfortunately, our Health and Safety class shares quite a few characteristics with Clovis Unified’s.
Among the problems with Clovis’ curriculum were videos which plaintiffs claimed to be “egregiously inaccurate and biased.” The California Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Act states, of course, that biased information is a big no-no. As written in the Act, “all factual information presented shall be medically accurate and objective” (Cal. Educ. Code § 51933, subd. (b)).
In May of 2015, an order from the Fresno Superior Court awarded $467,433.07 to the American Academy of Pediatrics, California District IX, Gay-Straight Alliance Network, Aubree Smith and Mica Ghimenti in a lawsuit against the Clovis Unified School District. The court order shed light on whether sex ed curricula in California high schools, which includes TCHS, meet the standards under the California Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Act.
One of the videos shown in the Clovis classrooms compared a woman who was not a virgin to a dirty shoe. Another video that CUSD featured in their curriculum was Kirk Cameron’s “Sex Lies and the Truth.”
Interestingly enough, while Clovis has since stopped showing the Kirk Cameron video due to its biased nature, TCHS continues to feature this video prominently. In my class, it was our introduction to sex ed. I distinctly remember one of the speakers in the film telling the audience that she will remain a virgin so that she can wear a white wedding dress and mean it. Biased statements like that and those made in the other Clovis video place unfair moral pressures on girls.
In addition to unbiased information, the Act requires that students be taught how to protect themselves from STDs and unintended pregnancy. While students did learn this in the class, it came off as an afterthought to the abstinence education.
The Act, which has the purpose of “providing a pupil with the knowledge and skills necessary to protect his or her sexual and reproductive health from unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases” (Cal. Educ. Code § 51930) sets out specific requirements that must be followed by school districts seeking to provide sex ed in the classroom.
“He was pushing so hard for abstinence that he failed to teach us how to have sex in a healthy way. We never learned about no means no,” Senior Daniel Berry, a student who recently completed the class, said. “I didn’t feel that the class prepared us for the world in that regard.”
“Sex Lies and the Truth” obfuscated the teaching of contraception with claims that safe-sex does not work, and that birth control is not reliable. The lessons taught to my class about contraceptives and safe-sex were not only undermined by videos seen in class, but by a guest speaker as well. The Act permits guest speakers provided they are qualified, unbiased and accurate.
Our speaker, Godfrey Moye, did not appear to be any of those things. He is not a medically trained professional. Instead he is a self-described actor who also speaks at high schools, youth groups, churches among others, about the “power of choice.” That “choice” clearly being abstinence. Moye’s presentation was also peppered with references of morality and medically inaccurate information, including his claim that women “always” bleed when having sex for the first time.
Though the Act’s purpose includes education on the topic of sexual orientation, the current curriculum contains little to no information about LGBTQ+ issues.
“In the past it’s really been more or less a majority rules education,” Health and Safety teacher Lyle Takeshita said. “But I believe we do have more of an openness to LGBTQ and that’s something I need to explore in terms of education.”
Having the benefit of hindsight, if I had to do it all again, I would have opted out of the sex ed parts of Health and Safety–not because I’m a prude who can’t handle this kind of mature topic, -but because the information is outdated. Instead, I’d be better off going to sources such as plannedparenthood.com, which offers objective and medically accurate sexual health information for teens, parents and educators.