Your daily dose of WTF news (no pun intended): A new law in Indiana, which will be in effect for the upcoming school year, will require parents to sign paperwork to allow their kids to receive sex education in public schools.
Nicole Hernandez explains more in The State House File:
Senate Enrolled Act 65 takes effect July 1 and makes it illegal for schools to provide lessons on human sexuality without a written consent form from the parent or guardian of each student…
State Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, the bill’s author, said it will act as a check and ensure that teachers across the state are only teaching what is written into the curriculum.
“Our state standards of human sexuality are very good in Indiana but we have teachers who are going beyond the standards and are getting into what I call more sensual, more nitty-gritty stuff, almost to the area of pornography,” said Kruse. “We thought ‘wow this is creeping in now’ so we better do something so that it doesn’t take over the curriculum.”
Leave it to Indiana to require permission slips before students can receive an education.
I have no idea what he’s referring to when he says sex ed lessons are inching toward “pornography.” I definitely don’t know what he means by “nitty-gritty stuff.” The closest thing to it that I ever saw in public school health class were diagrams of male and female reproductive systems and I assure you no one got turned on by those.
The saddest thing about the new law is that the students who won’t have a signed permission slip are very likely the kids who most need to take a sex ed class.
Making this law even more unnecessary is that Indiana barely teaches any relevant sex education as it is.
Indiana law requires that schools teach abstinence-only sex education, preventing teachers from giving students any details about birth control, condoms or sexually-transmitted diseases.
As sex-ed teacher Ginger Hixson-Kahl explained in that article, the hollowed-out curriculum will inevitably lead to more STDs and more unwanted pregnancies. (Which also means more abortions.)
But the Indiana legislature didn’t care for her common sense. The bill passed with overwhelming majorities in both houses.
This is just more proof that conservatives don’t really care preventing abortions. They’re much more interested in shaming sexually active students. Or at least students doing the nitty-gritty.
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