Colorado House passes sex ed bill over Republicans’ objections
Colorado Democrats approved a bill that expands sex-ed standards after a debate in the House Friday that wasn’t X-rated but certainly wasn’t PG.
Republican lawmakers read from various sex-ed curriculum, including how to have fun learning about condoms and substituting grape jelly or maple syrup for lubricants. They said that wasn’t appropriate for school kids.
House Bill 1081 by Rep. Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, passed on a party-line vote with all 37 Democrats in favor and all 28 Republicans opposed. It now goes to the Senate.
Duran said it was important for young people who are sexually active to know the tools to protect themselves.
“An abstinence-only approach simply hasn’t worked,” she said, adding a comprehensive sex-education model includes abstinence as the best method to avoid unwanted pregnancy and diseases.
“My gosh, I wish young kids were abstaining from sexual activity but the truth is that is not happening,” she said.
“The real truth is eight of 10 Democratic parents, they want their kids taught abstinence,” said Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, who led the fight for her caucus.
Stephens, a former policy analyst with Focus on the Family, has worked on family-planning issues for three decades and knows the politics of the issue at both the state and federal level. She reeled stats and studies off the top of her head during Friday’s discussion, just as she did during the initial hearing on the bill in the House, which lasted four hours Tuesday.
In urging passage of the bill, Rep. Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City, shared during both debates what he called “incredibly personal” issues. He said he sister was a teenage mother and he didn’t know until he went to college that it “wasn’t normal” to have a nursery at a your high school.
Moreno, who is gay, also said he struggled with his sexuality in high school and traditional sex-ed programs don’t deal with the subject.
“Yes, the primary trusted guardians in a child’s life should always be the parents, no doubt,” he said. “But there are times when those conversations are just too difficult and sometimes it’s simply more convenient not to have those conversations with their children.”
The bill, which expands the state’s criteria for “comprehensive sex education,” requires that sex education be sensitive to gay issues. The most controversial provision for some Republicans is that students are automatically enrolled unless parents object. They said it should be the other way around.
“Under the bill, the Department of Health would award grants to schools that follow the provisions in the bill — which have absolutely nothing to do with grape jelly or maple syrup,” Duran said.
That didn’t sway Republicans.
Rep. Rep. Perry Buck, R-Windsor, said her district struggles with school performance on basic issues, such as reading and math.
“And to think that we’re pushing this curriculum when we’re struggling with just the basics is unfathomable for me,” she said.
Lynn Bartels
What I’m not understanding is, my kids now their 30′s, had sex ed starting in 5th grade right there in the Littleton School district.
I’ll never forget trying to keep a straight face to her answer to “what did you learn in school today?” as she mispronounced prophylactics.
That was 25ish years ago, did they quit having it for awhile? What’s the big whoop-te-do now?
edit; they want to expand it I see….. after reading most of the posts you’d think they were introducing it for the first time. They gave the basics back then for health safety and pregnancy avoidance, so yes MORE seems silly in this day and age with so much info on the internet and society in general.
Unless you lived under a rock in the wilderness, additional sex ed. wouldn’t be necessary if you are ‘selling it’ on the health/birth control platform!
Abstinence should be included, but it shouldn’t be “taught” at the exclusion of everything else. As I stated elsewhere, the emphasis on safe sex of the last few decades apparently has yielded positive results, as the teen pregnancy rate is at a historic low for all ages and ethnic groups.
Republicans can talk about every other “dirty ” topic and remind us how conservative they are but for heaven’s sake when a common sense topic comes up to help everybody they stick their heads in the sand and swear they want nothing to do with the topic but behind closed doors they are leading the charge!
Besides, we all know it is only the poor and uneducated who are having unwanted pregnancies, and sucking on the taxpayers teats. In all good conscious, the 28 nay voters should slap themselves into reality and 2013! Nah…… The sky is falling and social issues are only for those bastard democrats!
I don’t think we need to be instructing kids about the fun side of things but they do need to know how to protect themselves. As long as at the end of the day the emphasis is on abstinence I don’t have a issue with this. Most school aged kids aren’t emotionally equipped for a physical relationship.
If parents could be trusted to properly instruct their kids in comprehensive, non-judgmental sex ed, the government wouldn’t have to do it for them.
Abstinance sex ed has been responsible for more teenage pregnancies than all forms of birth control combined.
Teenagers have been having sex since the beginning of time. It’s the most important part of growing up and no amount of sex ed is going to stop them.
Has it occurred to you that a comprehensive education on how to prevent pregnancies will reduce the number of abortions?
While countries we compete against focus on mandating the teaching of reading, writing, arithmetic, and science we spend our lawmakers precious time debating on how to forcefully use our school resources to focus on putting on condemns and being gay sensitive! Really, no wonder as I interview our graduated students they can’t fill out an application correctly, perform simple math, or perform basic tasks. Yet they all can roll a blunt and put on condemns. These are the important choices we make that put your children out of work. The fact is this is time spent in school that could be used to teach them some life skills, maybe they could mandate trade skills so they can make a life without welfare. Just possibly if they learned these skills they would be too busy to have children, they would be working and contributing to the tax coffers. When deciding how to spend our limited dollars Look at the statistics for sex education, vs hands on skill training. The value of one vs the other proves this is wasted valuable resources which is money that could be better spent. Oh no wonder our public schools are so lost. The legislature has mandated them out of the teaching business.
Good thing you rest your case…. it is not going anywhere. If there is one huge defining point between the working poor and the middle class it is when mistakes are made about sex. Children born to young parents are the main obstacle for these young people building themselves a better life.
Telling kids that their actions have consequences has ALWAYS been good parenting. Letting them know of other things they can do that MIGHT mitigate the consequences is ALSO good parenting. That said abstinance sex ed cannot be responsible for teenage pregnancies. Teenage behavior is responsible for teenage pregnancies.
I’m sure i’m just old fashioned…but I don’t want any school system teaching my children about sex education. This is a private matter that the parents should be teaching their children. I certainly don’t want them “educated” about homosexuality or indoctrinated to believe that its “normal” because there is one kid in the class that is gay or lesbian.
Most of the conversations in this thread seem to believe that teenagers having sex is just inevitable – and the attitude seems to be to just throw up our hands and teach them how to do it better and safer. …this is absolutely PATHETIC! You losers who are espousing this are just lazy parents who don’t want to do your job. its NOT inevitable if you have done your job and raised your children correctly to have morals.