March 13, 2008

Floridians Want Comprehensive Sex Ed in Schools

According to a recent survey conducted by Florida’s St. Petersburg Times, most Floridians think the state’s public schools should teach sex education beyond abstinence-only lessons, the newspaper reports (sptimes.com, 3/1).

Nearly 90 percent of the 702 registered voters surveyed said schools should offer some form of sex education; the study also found that only 8 percent of participants felt that they should promote abstinence-only education.

The results were similar across ages, income levels and gender, and religion played only a slight role in whether respondents felt students should receive more or less abstinence education.

However, politics did play a significant role: Only 2 percent of Democrats said that sex education should be abstinence-only, compared with 18 percent of Republican respondents.

One respondent, Nancy Hoppe, was among 17 percent of those who felt that schools should omit abstinence from sex education altogether. “I just think a rational approach is the better approach,” she said in the article. “A lot of kids who try to do the abstinence thing get in trouble when they can’t manage it.”

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Elaine Farrell, Monticello, NY, 2008-04-01 15:23:28
I think it's long overdue. Both my kids were in the Jacksonville school system when I began teaching HIV prevention 16 years ago for the Red Cross. We couldn't even approach schools, because we spoke of condoms too as well as abstinence). Considering that FL is #3 in the US for AIDS cases, it's a good thing their citizens are realizing the importance of comprehensive sex ed. Hopefully the powers that be listen to their constituents. Way to go Floridians!