Utah House panel advances no-sex education bill

[Mark R]

After about two hours of impassioned debate about sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy and abstinence, a legislative committee narrowly approved a bill Thursday evening that would allow Utah school districts to drop sex education.

Link

So evidently Utah wants to take ignorance to a whole new level.

Originally the bill required schools from "refraining from any discussion of contraception, homosexuality or sex outside marriage," but there was some concern about this affecting academic classes.
So the brilliant alternative they came up with: allow schools to drop sex education altogether.

Some people get so freaked out about contraceptives that the preferable alternative is ignorance. So if you just ignore the topic of sex it will go away on its own.

This is no where near becoming law at the moment, but my gosh the stupid burns bright in Utah.

 

[tyr_13]

Wow, I read the comments and didn't come out feeling stupid for it for once.

"Please set your clocks forward two hundred years, Sister Gayle so you can at least wake up in the morning on the wrong side of history. "

Nice.

 

[leftysergeant]

The GOP needs ignorant people to survive. This is a breeding and training program for ignorant people.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Reminds me of Wallace's willingness to do away with public schools rather than accept desegregation.

 

[Silly Green Monkey]

Utah's sex-ed classes were pretty spotty already, if my middle-school memories of a video are enough to go on.

 

[WildCat]

Utah's sex-ed classes were pretty spotty already, if my middle-school memories of a video are enough to go on.

Utah ranks 45th for teen pregnancy rates so whatever they're doing seems to be enough. Why should they spend money on sex ed that could be better spent elsewhere?

 

[theprestige]

I, for one, welcome an education bill that has no sex in it. The last one I read, every other subsection started out, "Dear Penthouse, I never thought I'd be proposing legislation like this, but..."

 

[Peephole]

Utah Republicans are just trying to stimulate the economy by increasing demand for abortion doctors. Good job.

 

[Complexity]

Why don't they simply write a 'No Education' bill and get it over with.

Utah has gorgeous landscapes and far too many nasty, ignorant people.

 

[Mark R]

Utah ranks 45th for teen pregnancy rates so whatever they're doing seems to be enough. Why should they spend money on sex ed that could be better spent elsewhere?

Except if you are Latina, in which case Utah's teen pregnancy rate is well above the national average. U.S. 70.1 vs Utah 91.1 per 1,000 females by Hispanic Ethnicity, ages 15-19.

Consider the following as well (Link):
"35 percent of teens ages 15-17 across the country thought they couldn’t get pregnant at the time, compared to 49 percent in Utah"

"Some 13 percent of teens nationally said they had trouble getting birth control, compared to 21 percent in Utah."

"And among the youngest teens, ages 15 to 17, nearly 24 percent thought they or their partner was sterile, a rate three times higher than the rest of the country."

Utah's low teen pregnancy rate is rather astonishing considering these facts. Consider that, unlike most states, Utah does not collect data on how many teens are sexually active, their number of partners or if protection is used.

I am starting to think ignorance is the state motto.

 

[leftysergeant]

Utah ranks 45th for teen pregnancy rates so whatever they're doing seems to be enough.

Threatening the kids with hell fire and eternal damnation or some sort of ghastly discipline when Dad finds out? Yeah, that should work for the rest of the country.

 

[progressquest]

Hurray! Utah proves that ignorance is, indeed, bliss.

Utah lawmakers pass abstinence-only sex education curriculum

I need to move out of this state.

 

[Modified]

Except if you are Latina, in which case Utah's teen pregnancy rate is well above the national average. U.S. 70.1 vs Utah 91.1 per 1,000 females by Hispanic Ethnicity, ages 15-19.

I suspect you'd get a similar reversal for any specific group that doesn't include many Mormons, or for the general group "not Mormon". This provides us with a simple solution to unwanted pregnancies in the rest of the country: replace sex ed. classes with Mormon indoctrination classes.

 

[lopeyschools]

Utah ranks 45th for teen pregnancy rates so whatever they're doing seems to be enough. Why should they spend money on sex ed that could be better spent elsewhere?

It is generally considered cheaper to bring a public health nurse in for a few days a year to discuss simple methods of contraceptives and biology, then deal with higher rates of STIs and unwanted pregnancies.

Judging for the OP's article, Utah had a sex ed program, which more then likely has something to do with it's favourable ranking in teen pregnancy.

 

[Mark R]

Link

"To replace the parent in the school setting, among people who we have no idea what their morals are, we have no ideas what their values are, yet we turn our children over to them to instruct them in the most sensitive sexual activities in their lives, I think is wrongheaded," said Sen. Stuart Reid, R-Ogden.

This is some serious paranoia. Seriously, if you are this afraid of teachers, why are you sending your kids to public schools anyway.

Home school them and let them be as ignorant as you.

 

[TragicMonkey]

A fun school project for Utah students would be to gather data on all the sexual indiscretions, cheating, affairs, and sex scandals committed by their legislators, then find out whether they had had sex ed in school or not, and see if there's a relation.

 

[Ausmerican]

Utah ranks 45th for teen pregnancy rates so whatever they're doing seems to be enough. Why should they spend money on sex ed that could be better spent elsewhere?

Just as a matter of interest where did you get those numbers? When I looked I found that Utah had a rate per 1000 of 47, which is close to your 45 and that put them 6th in the nation for teen pregnancy. Those figures are 2 years old but that would be an incredible drop.
http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/national-data/pdf/STBYST05_Preg Only.pdf

ETA: Looking at the figures again they were compiled in 2010 but they are for 2005. It also shows that from 1988 to 2005 Utah went from 30th in the nation to 6th.

 

[eeyore1954]

Just as a matter of interest where did you get those numbers? When I looked I found that Utah had a rate per 1000 of 47, which is close to your 45 and that put them 6th in the nation for teen pregnancy. Those figures are 2 years old but that would be an incredible drop.
http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/national-data/pdf/STBYST05_Preg Only.pdf

ETA: Looking at the figures again they were compiled in 2010 but they are for 2005. It also shows that from 1988 to 2005 Utah went from 30th in the nation to 6th.

I don't know what Utah's rate was in 1988 but the chart you show says they were 30th in Change in Teen Pregnancy Rates per 1,000 Girls Aged 15-19, 1988-2005.

 

[Ausmerican]

I don't know what Utah's rate was in 1988 but the chart you show says they were 30th in Change in Teen Pregnancy Rates per 1,000 Girls Aged 15-19, 1988-2005.

True, my bad, misread the title of the second chart. The first chart is for 2005 and shows them 6th however which is a long way from the 45th that Wildcat mentioned which is why I wondered where he got his numbers.

 

[eeyore1954]

True, my bad, misread the title of the second chart. The first chart is for 2005 and shows them 6th however which is a long way from the 45th that Wildcat mentioned which is why I wondered where he got his numbers.

I think it must be because he is talking about 45th highest rate and the other is ranking by lowest rates. Basically 45th highest and 6 lowest are the same.