Anchorage Daily News Examines Efforts Throughout Alaska To Mandate Comprehensive Sex Education

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 06 Oct 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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The Anchorage Daily News on Wednesday examined efforts by college and high school students in Alaska to reform the way sex education is taught in the state. The students argued that mandatory comprehensive sex education is needed in Alaska high schools. According to the Daily News, requiring comprehensive sex education would be a "radical shift from the hands-off approach" Alaska currently takes, which allows individual school districts to determine the way sex education is presented. Shirley Holloway, first vice chair for the State Board of Education and Early Development, said the department has "tried really hard" to "hono[r] local control."

The Daily News reports that most public schools in the state teach some form of "abstinence-plus" sex education, which stresses abstinence as the only way to prevent sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies and provides students with information about what to do if they do not choose to be abstinent. Amber Sawyer, a junior at the University of Alaska-Anchorage who heads a group called Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood, said the abstinence-plus model used in Anchorage schools has many gaps. According to Sawyer, Anchorage's program is taught in eighth grade when it is not as relevant as it would be in later grades, teachers often are embarrassed and students do not receive practical advice.

Carol Comeau, superintendent of the Anchorage School District, said despite calls from some students for more "real" sex education, parents, students and administrators might not accept an additional graduation requirement. "At this point, there has not been an official request," but "I am more than willing to have the health curriculum committee look at that issue," Comeau said, adding, "It's a very controversial issue in so many places because a lot of parents don't want the schools doing it at all; other parents absolutely want the schools to do it. And then you've got a lot of people in between."

The Daily News reports that Sawyer is circulating a petition, initially drafted by Planned Parenthood of Alaska, that seeks to draw attention to the need for comprehensive sex education. Since late August, 1,100 people have signed the petition, including 300 people younger than age 18, PPA CEO Clover Simon said. Simon added that the goal is to collect 5,000 names and show lawmakers that "there is general concern in the community that our sex education programs need to be improved." She added that she would like for the state to adopt legislation similar to that passed in Washington state last year, which requires schools that address sexuality and health also to provide more than abstinence-only information, which would be medically and scientifically accurate and age appropriate.

A statewide study found that 63% of Alaskan high school seniors in 2007 reported having sex. Although Alaska's rate of teenage pregnancies is about average compared with the rest of the country, birth rates for Alaskan and U.S. teens in 2006 rose for the first time since 1991 (Holland, Anchorage Daily News, 10/1).

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