The act was put in place to direct local school administrative units to provide reproductive health and safety education.
The act includes teaching students about sexually-transmitted diseases and how they are and are not transmitted, the effectiveness and safety of all federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA), approved methods of reducing the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, and information on local resources for testing and medical care for sexually transmitted diseases.
The primary focus of the act remains to inform students about reproductive health and safety education. Each school administrative unit must provide a program that includes the following instruction: "Teaches that abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage is the expected standard for all school‑age children; presents techniques and strategies to deal with peer pressure and offering positive reinforcement; presents reasons, skills, and strategies for remaining or becoming abstinent from sexual activity; teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain means of avoiding out‑of‑wedlock pregnancy, sexually-transmitted diseases when transmitted through sexual contact, including HIV/AIDS, and other associated health and emotional problems; teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous heterosexual relationship in the context of marriage is the best lifelong means of avoiding sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS; teaches the positive benefits of abstinence until marriage and the risks of premarital sexual activity; provides opportunities that allow for interaction between the parent or legal guardian and the student; provides factually accurate biological or pathological information that is related to the human reproductive system.
Materials used in this instruction shall be age appropriate for use with students. Information conveyed during the instruction shall be objective and based upon scientific research that is peer reviewed and accepted by professionals and credentialed experts in the field of sexual health education."
"Basically the state told us what the curriculum will be," Superintendent of Elkin City Schools Dr. Randy Bledsoe said. "Beginning with this school year, we will be teaching health, basic health class. When the schools receive the full curriculum, we will call the parents in and review the new policy and changes. The parents will then have the required 60 days to decide whether they want their child in a classroom where the amended sex education policy is being taught.
"One of the things we're waiting on is for the state to complete the full curriculum," he said. "We won't be including the new policy until the spring."
Other instructions that must be included in the program is information that teaches about sexually transmitted diseases. "Instruction shall include the rates of infection among pre-teen and teens of each known sexually transmitted disease and the effects of contracting each sexually transmitted disease. In particular, the instruction shall include information about the effects of contracting the Human Papilloma Virus, including sterility and cervical cancer. Other requirements are that the program must "teaches about the effectiveness and safety of all FDA‑approved contraceptive methods in preventing pregnancy; teaches awareness of sexual assault, sexual abuse, and risk reduction. The instruction and materials shall: Focus on healthy relationships; teach students what constitutes sexual assault and sexual abuse, the causes of those behaviors, and risk reduction; inform students about resources and reporting procedures if they experience sexual assault or sexual abuse.
Bledsoe spoke of providing the correct and current information to students.
"Our job is to carry out the state requirements," Bledsoe said. "This will include providing students with information on the diseases that can be contracted with unprotected sex. Our focus is and will be abstinence, which is the best way to prevent not only diseases, but pregnancy. We will handle the information delicately and present concepts being respectful of all people's choices.
"We sometimes may think that are children are not only unaware, but not participants, but the statistics show us differently," he said. "We will be working with the Surry County Health and Nutrition Center in coordinating our classes. There is also a program called Empower Me, that Pam Colbert, Elkin Middle School Principal, will be using.
"We have to be realistic about STD's and kid's understanding of them."
Other items contained in the new state policy include the following.
"Examination of common misconceptions and stereotypes about sexual assault and sexual abuse; materials used in this instruction shall be age appropriate for use with students. Information conveyed during the instruction shall be objective and based upon scientific research that is peer reviewed and accepted by professionals and credentialed experts in the field of sexual health education. Each local board of education shall adopt a policy and provide a mechanism to allow a parent or a guardian to withdraw his or her child from instruction required under this subdivision.
Each school year, before students may participate in any portion of a program that pertains to or is intended to impart information or promote discussion or understanding in regard to the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, or to the avoidance of out‑of‑wedlock pregnancy, an abstinence until marriage program, or a comprehensive sex or, a reproductive health and safety education program, whether developed by the State or by the local board of education, the parents and legal guardians of those students shall be given an opportunity to review the objectives and materials. Local boards of education shall adopt policies to provide opportunities either for parents and legal guardians to consent or for parents and legal guardians to withhold their consent to the students' participation in any or all of these programs."
The final part of the new law requires that each local school administrative unit provide a comprehensive school health education program that meets all the requirements of the new law and all the objectives established by the State Board. Each local board of education may expand on the subject areas to be included in the program and on the instructional objectives to be met.
Parents of Elkin City Schools will be notified when the curriculum is sent to the school and asked to come view the policy and make the choice for their child.
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