The Olympian is reporting this morning that the Washington state legislature passed a comprehensive sex education bill last night. The bill is now on its way to the Governor who is expected to sign it into law. Here are some highlights from the article:
Under the measure, schools that choose to provide sex education would be required to discuss abstinence with students, but could not teach abstinence without also instructing students about other aspects of sexuality, including the use of contraceptives.New voluntary sex education guidelines adopted by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in January 2005 outline medically and scientifically accurate sex education.The measure passed by the House Wednesday makes those guidelines mandatory for schools that have sex education programs. Schools that only offer abstinence programs would have to increase their programs to include other aspects of sex education, or they could choose to offer nothing.The bill defines "medically and scientifically accurate" information as that which is supported by research, is published in peer-review journals and is considered to be objective.
And in case you missed it, on Monday the LATimes published a great piece about the emerging trend of states refusing federal abstinence-only-until-marriage dollars.Let's all hope the tide is starting to turn.
