A coalition of groups which includes two students’ parents have brought a lawsuit against the Clovis Unified School District in California, claiming that their abstinence-only sex education program violates state law. Students in a Fresno County, California, school district are taught that HIV can be spread through kissing, and the right way to prevent STDs is by going out in groups with friends, getting plenty of rest, and practicing abstinence. Their “Lifetime Health” textbook, which Clovis Unified School District uses for its high school sex education curriculum, makes no mention of condoms or contraception.
According to the lawsuit…other instructional materials compare a woman who is not a virgin to a dirty shoe and suggest that men are unable to stop themselves once they become sexually aroused.
One of the parents, Mica Ghimenti, joined the lawsuit after noticing medically inaccurate information in her daughter’s ninth grade health class:
The lawsuit against Clovis Unified, which serves 39,000 students in Fresno County, alleges that the abstinence-only curriculum is risking young people’s health by denying them accurate information about how to prevent STDs and unwanted pregnancies.
I want there to be medically accurate, scientifically based education for all youth in Clovis Unified, if we don’t give them the information, they won’t be able to make good, healthy decisions.
Kelly Avants, Clovis Unified spokeswoman, said:
The district fully complies with state education law that promotes abstinence as the only 100% surefire way to prevent pregnancy and STDs.
The lawsuit alleges that, in contrast to Avant’s assertion, a 2003 law requires California’s public schools to provide students with medically accurate, comprehensive information about HIV prevention, STD contraction, and FDA-approved methods for preventing pregnancy.
Asked about allegations that the district omits information about condoms and contraception, Avants declined to comment. Avants would not comment on the issue of condoms and contraception, and it’s no wonder why, because refusing to acknowledge that teenagers have sex and/or that contraceptives exist has worked out so well thus far. We know this because states that teach abstinence-only education rank the highest in the numbers of underage pregnancies. In addition, a federal study done in 2007 found that abstinence-only education ultimately had “no impacts” at all on convincing teens to abstain from sex.
I feel like I am going insane. I mean we are in the 21st century right???? Why do I feel like I just woke from nap and we are now back in the 1920s? We have a bunch of crazy Republicans telling us that when it comes down to “legitimate rape” (as if there is such a thing) a woman has some magical bodily function to produce spermicide…oh wait I stand corrected…they meant to say “forcible” rape, like there is any other kind… by definition that is rape! RAPE is RAPE!!!!! These dumb religious Republican morons are trying to redefine what rape is, some even saying that women can bring on the rape by their dress and their actions! As if all this wasn’t bad enough…now we have this school district that is teaching students that women are like old shoes. The war on women just keeps getting worse and just when I think I can’t be anymore disgusted by the GOP…they go and surprise me.
