Sex Ed Critics Demand Abstinence-Only Option In City Schools
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
Teaching sex education is schools has always been fraught with controversy, and as the city has unveiled a new curriculum, critics are seizing on it as encouraging sex and demanding other options for their children. NY1's Josh Robin filed the following report. As a concerned parent, Patricia Salas thinks sex has no place in the classroom.
"I actually think it's a parents' job to teach a child about sex," she said.
At her daughters' schools, and every other public middle and high school in the five boroughs, sex ed will be part of the curriculum next spring. Possible homework assignments include shopping for condoms and scouting out places to get birth control pills.
That brought Salas to join elected officials in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn on Monday to say they are not wanting the curriculum done away with, but just offered alongside abstinence-only education.
"Our mayor is very good at supporting school reform, and supporting parental choice. Parents can choose to choose to go to a regular public school or a charter school. Why can't parents choose what sort of sex ed class they want their child in?" said Michael Benjamin of the New York City Parents' Choice Coalition.
The answer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, is that there are too many kids having kids or getting sexual transmitted diseases.
"I think it's the responsibility of the city to explain to the kids the risks. We preach abstinence in the sense that we say the only sure ways to not get pregnant, the only sure ways to not get a sexually transmitted disease, is to abstain from sex," said Bloomberg.
To that, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott added a number of students have had multiple sexual partners, so he said, "We can't stick our heads in the sand about this."
The book recommended by the DOE has a lot both sides can agree on, including how to say no to sex and how to talk to one's parents.
But there is more that critics are seizing on as inappropriate to teach in school, including shopping for condoms and foam, noting brand and product characteristics.
They are also seizing on a website, www.goaskalice.com, referenced in another book that teachers could use. It offers frank advice about sexuality, along with topics like stress and well-being.
"It makes me blush," said Benjamin.
"We've apparently gone a long way from biological reproduction. There are alternatives to this," said Congressman Bob Turner.
There are. Parents who object can speak to the principal.