The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) has ordered local school districts to submit their sex education plans to the state for approval. The FLDOE has also said the classes must promote abstinence and cannot include discussion of contraception or pictures of reproductive health organs.
The sex-ed takeover removes local discretion when it comes to district sex education classes and materials.
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For some time, Florida law has mandated that sex-ed lessons emphasize the “benefits of sexual abstinence as the expected standard and the consequences of teenage pregnancy” for grades 6 through 12.
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But now the state has removed any local control of additional information school districts can provide their students.
A memo written by Broward County administrators obtained by The Orlando Sentinel summarized the district’s verbal interactions with state officials regarding their takeover of sex ed in the state. The state provided no written instructions provided for districts.
“Pictures of external sexual/reproductive anatomy should not be included in any grade level,” the memo recorded state officials as saying. “Contraceptives are not part of any health or science standard” but could be mentioned as a “health resource,” though “pictures, activities, or demonstrations that illustrate their use should not be included in instruction in any grade level,” it said.
“Different types of sex (i.e., anal, oral, and vaginal) cannot be part of instruction in any grade level,” state officials added, according to the Broward memo.
Orange County schools previously started their lessons in 5th grade with one class devoted to the physical changes of puberty. High schoolers had discussions about contraception and sexually transmitted diseases.
Now the state must approve any additional curriculum and they’ll either deny the additions or ignore them, forcing local districts to cancel sex-ed classes altogether until the state addresses their plans.
Elissa Barr, a professor of public health at the University of North Florida and a member of the sex ed advocacy group Florida Healthy Youth Alliance, has been keeping in touch with local school officials and compiling a list of words and phrases they’ve been told to remove from their reproductive health plans.
These words include abuse, consent, domestic violence, fluids, gender identity and LGBTQ information, she said.
Removing the word “fluids” from lessons will make it hard to teach about how HIV is transmitted, for instance, since it spreads through blood, breast milk, semen and vaginal “fluids”.
“That’s science,” Barr said.
The verbal feedback that Orange school district officials got was plain: Throw out your plan and just use the state textbook.
“The FDOE strongly recommended the district utilize the state adopted text,” the district said in an emailed statement to the Sentinel.
The state textbook preaches abstinence as the only effective way to prevent STDs and pregnancy, and there’s no mention of contraception. The text also encourages students to go on group outings rather than spend time alone with a date.
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