Health education programs

The San Antonio Express-News on Tuesday examined the sex education programs used in Bexar County, Texas, school districts. According to the Express-News, sex education in Bexar County - which has a teen birth rate almost double the national rate - “falls somewhere in the middle” of abstinence-only sex education and a more comprehensive approach.

Under state law, educators are prohibited from distributing condoms or demonstrating their use, but they are allowed to teach students about contraceptives. Instructors must teach that abstinence is the “only way” to prevent sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy, the Express-News reports. The amount of information students receive about contraception depends on the school district and if their parent or guardian signs a permission slip. According to the Express-News, even with parental consent, not all students in the county receive the same information about contraception.

Eleven of the county’s 16 school districts teach abstinence-only before marriage and present contraceptives only in terms of their failure rates. Five districts teach the “abstinence-plus” approach, which presents the effectiveness of contraceptives. According to the Express-News, districts decide which curriculum to use based on the recommendations of a school district’s School Health Advisory Council, which is designed to represent a community’s values.

Funding also has been a factor in choosing a program for some of the county’s low-income districts, the Express-News reports. Ten of the 11 districts that have abstinence-only programs use the federally funded “Worth the Wait” program De La Rosa, San Antonio Express-News, 3/31. According to a 2005 review of Worth the Wait by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, the program spreads messages of “fear and shame” among students and teaches medical misinformation on some issues, such as the effectiveness of contraception and the risks of contracting STIs Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, 9/27/05. Gina Castro, an administrator for the Harlandale Independent School District in Bexar County, said that what made Worth the Wait “nice was it was free,” adding, “We had not really allotted any funds to buy a curriculum, so it came at the exact perfect time” San Antonio Express-News, 3/31.