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July 23, 2004
THE STORKS HAVE LANDED IN TEXAS
It's a well-known truism that if you stubbornly ignore a reality you don't like to acknowledge, it will just go away, right? And no matter what the facts say or how many are hurt because of your ignorance, you must cling to your position, no matter how untenable it is.
Thisseems to be the belief of the Texas State Board of Education. Despite the fifth highest overallteen pregnancy rate in the country - more than 6 of every 100 women in Texas were pregnant before age 19, according to a 2002 CDC report, and the highest rate of pregnancy among 15-17 yeard olds - the State Board of Ostrichcation - oops, I mean Education - is dismissing a textbook on sex education that refers to condoms, saying it does not conform to state guidelines, because it doesn't emphasize abstinence enough.
Not to worry, though. Texas kids will get some sex education this year. The Board is still considering three other books, however - three books that the Board has declared do conform to Texas standards. You want to know how these books address pregnancy prevention?
Of the four state high school health textbooks under consideration in Texas this summer, one says teenagers should "get plenty of rest" if they want to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. It also suggests students can help prevent pregnancies by respecting themselves. The book avoids any discussion of condoms.
Abstinence is the preferred practice in two more submitted textbooks, which only vaguely refer to "barrier protection," but never explain exactly what that term means.
Yep, kids... you read that right. They've discovered a miracle right there in the Lone Star State.See, while where you and I live, kids get STDs when they have unprotected sex... well down there in Texas, kids are getting sexually transmitted diseases simply by not sleeping enough! And while where you and I live, people avoid pregnancy by using birth control... why, down there in Texas, all you have to do is respect yourself! (Cue Bruce Willis' lame-ass 1987 song.)
The entire Board should be ashamed of itself. They are, in my opinion, guilty of dereliction of their duty to the students of Texas. To deny students accurate scientific information that could in fact save their lives... all in the name of some ridiculous notion that kids onlythink about having sex because teachers tell them about condoms? Criminal.
Look at your teen pregnancy rates, you ignorant morons! Guess what?! They're having sex - whether you like it or not. And because this goes against the "values" of some, all the students in Texas will be put at risk and in danger so as not to offend social conservatives. In other words, an agenda based on social conservative values, even when such an agenda endangers children across the state, is dictating what kids in Texas learn - not science, and not fact.
And the sad irony is, in pursuing this agenda, the Board is ignoring another fact: their abstinence plan doesn't work. Texas' teen pregnancy rates lead the nation. Whatever they've been doing isn't working. So naturally, their solution is to approve textbooks that prescribe plenty of rest as a way of avoiding STD's.
It's a shame. And one would think that if the parents of Texas care about their kids, they'd demand the immediate resignation of the entire State Board.
