Mississippi schools have nine months to decide how they will handle a state mandate to incorporate “abstinence-only” or “abstinence-plus” classes into the curriculum, but not every district is rushing to make the choice.
The Starkville School District this week voted 3-1 in favor of an “abstinence-plus” curriculum for the 2012-2013 school year, but the Lowndes County School District is not expected to make a decision until the new superintendent is elected in the Nov. 8 general election, and Janet Lewis, public information officer for the Columbus Municipal School District, said Wednesday afternoon that to her knowledge, CMSD officials have not formally discussed the issue.
The Mississippi Legislature passed House Bill 999 in March, and it became effective July 1. The bill requires every school board in the state to adopt a “sex-related education policy” by June 30, 2012.
Under the mandate, boards can choose either an “abstinence-only” curriculum, which promotes sexual abstinence until marriage and does not discuss the use of contraceptives or safe sex practices, or “abstinence-plus,” which promotes sexual abstinence until marriage, along with providing information about contraceptives and sexually transmitted diseases.
Parents will have to give consent for their child to participate in either curriculum, and classes are required to be age-appropriate and separated by gender. The bill prohibits “any teaching that abortion can be used to prevent the birth of a baby.”
It also requires the Mississippi Department of Mental Health and the Mississippi Department of Education to create a teen pregnancy task force in counties with high numbers of teen pregnancies.
There were approximately 7,078 live births to mothers between the ages of 10 and 19 in 2009, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health. The statistic ranked Mississippi as No.1 in the nation for the highest number of teen pregnancies.
Although some form of sex education has been part of many health and/or physical education classes, the new state law marks a change in that districts are now required to teach it. Previously, schools could teach abstinence, but more comprehensive classes required school board approval, and it was not a required part of the curriculum.
In the Lowndes County School District, limited sex education has been part of students’ health classes and some other classes for a long time, LCSD Superintendent Mike Halford said Wednesday, but it’s never been a focal point.
With an increased push over the years for school accountability and higher state test scores, “untested” subjects often vie with “tested” subjects for classroom time.
“We’d love to have more time in the day and less restrictions where we could teach more than what is required,” Halford said.
But ultimately, he suggested, the main line of defense against teen pregnancy may be the parents themselves.
“I promise you that … a general, functioning, working level of sex ed is well in a young man or female’s mind well before,” Halford said. “They know what causes babies.”
The bigger problem, he said, is child-rearing, lack of supervision, increasingly mobile teenagers and opportunity.
“When I was growing up, you didn’t have a car, and you were at home,” Halford said. “Now you’ve got kids that drive themselves to school, both parents working … it’s just opportunity for a child (to get into trouble). … We probably need as much parenting skills, or moreso.”
Halford, who has held the elected superintendent’s position for eight years, declined to run for office this year. The next superintendent will be decided in the Nov. 8 general election, where Republican Lynn Wright will face Democrat Cliff Reynolds and Independent Rusty Greene.
He said due to the impending election, he has decided not to make a decision on which sex education curriculum will be taught in the county schools.
“I retire in December, and the new person coming in may have a different approach he wants to take,” Halford explained.
Regardless of the election outcome or the curriculum chosen, other things will have to be determined, like whether the course will be paired with physical education classes or taught as a stand-alone semester class and how school districts — many of which have seen a hard year due to state budget cuts — will fund new textbooks.
“If you don’t have money to pay your teachers, how are you going to have money for new textbooks?” Halford asked, admitting that while it’s not a problem for LCSD, it’s a realistic question for other districts.
As for the city schools, Interim Superintendent Dr. Martha Liddell said the board has not made a decision at this time, but a district committee of parents and educators will be assembled to review both curriculums and make a recommendation as to which curriculum, “abstinence-only” or “abstinence-plus,” is “best-suited for Columbus schools.”
Liddell said abstinence education professionals will be brought in from the Mississippi Department of Education to conduct training in the curriculum content.
“Columbus (Municipal School District) is committed to the educational and emotional well-being of our students, including education programs designed to inform appropriately-aged students about the challenges of teen pregnancy and unplanned parenthood, as well as underage sexual activity and related risk factors,” Liddell said in a statement issued Thursday morning.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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