School district approves sex ed starting in kindergarten

KOBTV ^ | Mar. 2, 2004 | Kurt Christopher

[DemWatch]

A New Mexico school district is debating a controversial plan to stop young kids from having sex. Its solution: Sex education starting in kindergarten.

In the town of Anthony, between Las Cruces and El Paso, Texas, a lot of children are having sex early and often.

“We ask them how many sexual partners they’ve had, coming in to get tested, and quite a few of them, in fact the majority, had anywhere from 10 to 15 partners by the time they got to high school,” said Colleen Runyan, a school nurse at Gadsden High School.

Already this school year the Gadsden School District has seen two elementary school students pregnant. Eight middle school students and 79 high school students have also become pregnant.

“That’s the thing now in middle school,” said one teen. “That’s how to get to be cool.”

“They’re not listening to the abstinence [message,]” said Runyan. “What are we going to do? These babies are going to end up being welfare babies.”

And it’s not just pregnancies. Runyan estimates 20 percent of high school students in the district have sexually transmitted diseases.

The school district and many parents are at a loss for what to do.

“We’ve had many parents going to our school board meetings asking for help,” said Runyan. “They don’t want to see this either.”

Gadsden Superintendent Ron Haugen says many of those parents are uneducated and just don’t have the skills to teach their children. Often times the kids go to other kids to get information about sex, and what they get is dangerously inaccurate.

One myth spread around: Smoking marijuana kills sperm. For one unlucky teen, believing in the myth resulted in pregnancy.

It’s because of situations like this the school district is now talking about stepping up its efforts for sex education at what some may consider a shockingly early age.

“The elementary [level.] Basically what we’re looking at is a curriculum to implement K-through-12 that deals with the whole concept of sexuality and those types of things,” said Haugen.

That’s right. Sex education beginning in kindergarten. But Runyan says such a program would not be a “how to” manual.

“This is how you arm these little ones. They have to learn about their bodies. They have to learn about their spirits, that they can say no,” she said. “It’s a whole gamut of wellness that we need to teach these kids.”

But Nurse Runyan says from what she’s seen, education still isn’t enough for some kids. She’s suggesting middle school and even elementary school students have access to condoms.

“I do think we need to offer the same services that we do at the high school because they’re becoming sexually active earlier,” she said.

But Superintendent Haugen says he is not ready to start handing out condoms to 12-year-old boys.

Just last Thursday the Gadsden School Board sided with the superintendent, saying no birth control shall be distributed to elementary or middle school students, but the high school will start handing out condoms and other forms of birth control immediately.

The board also approved a more aggressive sex education curriculum that will start with children in kindergarten.

In contrast, in Albuquerque Public Schools, sex education does not begin until the 5th grade. That school district does not provide any form of birth control.

[Othniel]

One thing missing, of course, is the race of all the kids who are getting pregnant. In sunny California, there are a lot more Hispanic girls getting knocked up than there are whites. And a lot of those are illegals.

[P.O.E.]

I really feel like I'm about to step into the lion's den by becoming a teacher.

[Amelia]

So the answer to these children having sex early is not to parent them better, spend more time with them (children with parents and responsible adults with them at all time can't get pregnant), etc., but to invade childhood yet further and teach sex ed to five-year-olds. Sickening.

How do you MAKE people "parent them better"?

How do you MAKE people spend more time with their children?

How do you MAKE parents make sure even older children are supervised at all times? (The older children are often latchkey kids and/or are "supervising" the younger ones while Mom is at work or elsewhere.)

YOU might do all these things, and it would be really nice if ALL parents did, but I will tell you that working parents, single parents, working single parents, drug and alcohol addicted parents, etc. do not, and often cannot.

My latest pregnant student is living with an uncle who doesn't supervise her, because her single mother is in jail on drug charges. For the record, I think she's pregnant because she wanted to be, not because she didn't know how to prevent it.

What are you going to do about people like that? I'm not sure sex-ed in kindergarten is the answer either, but if you'll re-read the article you'll see that the school system is also somewhat at a loss and seems to be doing this as a "last-ditch" measure.

[GOPrincess]

You know, you probably *can't* "make" people parent better. If they don't want to, they're not going to. I guess where my problem lies, though, is the overall response to this...the rest of society (i.e., schools) responds in ways which further enable bad parenting by either trying to take on the parents' proper role, *or* shrugging and looking the other way, *or* doing things which are grossly inappropriate as "fixes," i.e., Kindergarten sex ed. In other words, the culture as a whole is declining -- and kids who are from homes where they are well-parented are caught up in the mess. I'd like to see schools not try to be nannies and also to have high standards for behavior and learning, and let the chips fall where they may for parents and children with negative consequences for negative behavior. That's the only thing that will "make" bad parents act more responsibly.

For example, I recently wrote the principal of my daughter's high school inquiring about the school's lack of enforcement of the published dress code (you can see girls' rear ends hanging out of their low-rider pants...). The response was a shrug of the shoulders, "everybody does it," and "parents tell me they can't find other clothes." (Oh, then how does my daughter manage to get to school fully dressed?) I'd like to see appropriate school standards *enforced* and the parents and students have resulting consequences. (And no, I don't think it's nannying to expect kids to come to school fully covered, grin.) At the junior high, my inquiries about teachers ignoring children's foul language were met with "Well, the kids hear it at home and use it," in other words, a shrug and looking the other way. Well, at the elementary school they have standards and if a child cusses they sit in the office all day and their parents are called to the school for a conference, and funny thing, they don't have a language problem there. (My high schooler is the only one left in the public schools, the rest are private and homeschooled, in large part because of the declining educational and behavior standards I've seen just in the last half-decade, in particular...)

If a parent's going to do such a bad job that their elementary schooler is pregnant, I seriously question whether that child is neglected or in an abusive home -- obviously this is a young child who is not being properly monitored and cared for. There should be resulting legal consequences for a parent who would allow a child to become pregnant while still that young. The rest of society shouldn't have to pay by having their five-year-olds taught sex education.

[savedbygrace]

You are correct, but that's only half the equation.

At the same time, due to a variety of factors, including skyrocking taxes and the women's movement, mothers began working outside the home in large numbers. This removed the hands-on parental influence from kids' lives for much of the day. This, in turn, resulted in kids raising kids, rather than parents raising kids.

Those two factors have gone hand in hand toward this current situation. IMO.

[Amelia]

I'd like to see appropriate school standards *enforced* and the parents and students have resulting consequences.

I agree totally.

I can tell you however, that when schools try to do that, they get a lot more complaints from the "bad" parents than kudos from the "good" parents...then the school board members get calls from the parents of the children who are being punished, then the administrators get calls from the school board.....

[GOPrincess]

"I can tell you however, that when schools try to do that, they get a lot more complaints from the "bad" parents than kudos from the "good" parents...then the school board members get calls from the parents of the children who are being punished, then the administrators get calls from the school board....."

I believe this, and I think it's one reason the local principals are so wimpy. They seem to be "go along to get along" guys who want to make the fewest waves possible until they can collect their pensions, and challenging the students with standards is definitely making waves :).

[Amelia]

I don't know about where you are, but where I am, principals don't get tenure. ;-)

[GOPrincess]

I'm in So. CA...the principals are "rotated" by the district to different schools every 5-7 years, but otherwise, it's about impossible to get rid of them. Don't know if they're formally tenured like the teachers, but some of them have been with the district for decades.

Wish there were a way to force the principals to be more responsive, and particularly to be more *responsible* without parent prodding. I don't enjoy the "squeaky wheel" role but feel forced into it at times -- i.e., why is it that no principal, janitor, child, or other parent has noticed that bathrooms at each successive school my eldest has attended were missing stall doors or locks? It took me "making waves" with each successive principal to effect the changes -- the changes *were* made, so at least that's something (grin!)-- but there was initially resistance (!) two out of three times (one principal even denied the situation existed until my daughter gave him a guided tour). Since it was obviously possible to fix them once a parent squeaked loud enough, why did I have to be the one to make the racket in the first place? (Groan!) Ah, well... After many years of volunteering, donating, meeting attending, etc., I just couldn't deal anymore with the bureaucratic inertia and increasing social and educational problems, and decided to channel my energies more positively into homeschooling, which has been a uniquely fulfilling experience.

[Amelia]

Since it was obviously possible to fix them once a parent squeaked loud enough, why did I have to be the one to make the racket in the first place?

Some people subscribe to the theory that "the nail that sticks up gets smashed down" and are afraid to "squeak". It's a shame you can't get other like-minded parents to help.

I've always thought home-schooling would be fun.

[MegaSilver]

There is no way to combat infantile pregnancy except for 1) a religious revival, and 2) mothers returning home to be with their children.

Neither is likely, but a religious revival at least has the advantage of being totally predictable.

[Old Professer]

Educators, facillitators, sometimes teachers.

[OXENinFLA]

This is a Jaw on the floor, I can't believe a South Park episode would come true, Ping..........

[OXENinFLA]

Check this out.