Officials in Florida are pressuring schools to withdraw sex education about contraception and consent

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Some Florida school districts are rolling back a more comprehensive approach to sex education in favor of abstinence-focused lessons under pressure from state officials who have deemed certain lessons on contraception, anatomy and consent as inappropriate for students.

Florida Department of Education officials, led by a representative of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, have ordered some of the state’s largest school districts to limit their lesson plans on not only sexual activity, but also contraception, human development, abuse, and domestic violence, as for the first time from which reported Orlando Sentinel.

The shift reflects a nationwide push in conservative states to limit children’s opportunities to learn about themselves and their bodies. Advocates fear that young people are not receiving reliable education about adolescence, safe sex or relationship violence at a time when sexually transmitted infections are on the rise and access to abortion is increasingly restricted.

Under recent state law changes, it is now the responsibility of the Florida Department of Education to approve school districts’ reproductive health and disease education curriculum when they use teaching materials other than the state-designated textbook.

About a dozen districts across Florida have been ordered by state officials to limit their sex education curriculum, said Elissa Barr, a public health professor at the University of North Florida and chairwoman of the Florida Healthy Youth Alliance, which advises school districts on developing and implementing comprehensive sex education programs .

Barr said comprehensive sex education isn’t just about reducing teen pregnancy and protecting young people from HIV, at a time when Florida reports more HIV diagnoses than almost any other state, according to nonprofit health research organization KFF.

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“Sex education is the prevention of sexual abuse. It’s dating violence prevention. And it just helps young people develop healthier relationships and actually delay sexual initiation,” Barr told The Associated Press. “One in four teenagers is still pregnant at least once before the age of 20. Therefore, we believe that limiting information and education about contraceptives is a disservice to young people. This is very damaging.”

Research has shown that comprehensive sex education results in teens waiting longer to have sex for the first time, reducing rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, and preventing sexual abuse.

A spokesman for the Florida Department of Education defended the state’s approach, emphasizing the importance of abstinence and recent changes to state law that require schools to teach that “reproductive roles” are “binary, stable and unchanging.”

“Florida law requires schools to emphasize the benefits of sexual abstinence as an expected standard and the consequences of teenage pregnancy,” said Sydney Booker, the department’s communications director. “A state government should not emphasize or promote sexual activity among children or minors and is therefore right to emphasize abstinence.”

At Broward County Public Schools, which includes Fort Lauderdale and is the sixth-largest school district in the country, state officials told the district that images of reproductive anatomy and demonstrations on contraceptive use “should not be included in any grade level,” according to a staff memo, which was shared with the AP.

Florida Department of Education officials also asked the district to remove the words “abuse, consent and domestic violence” from a proposed lesson for first graders and replace them with language considered more age-appropriate, such as “with a trusted adult.” “Speak if you feel uncomfortable.”

Barr said concerns raised about curriculum were “inconsistent” from district to district and were communicated verbally rather than via email.

A representative from Orange County Public Schools, which includes Orlando, said the district revised its curriculum in response to “verbal feedback” from the department.

“FDOE strongly recommended that the district use the text adopted by the state,” said district spokesman Michael Ollendorff.

Under Florida law, schools are not required to teach sex education. If they offer classes, they must emphasize abstinence as the “expected standard.” Parents in Florida have the right to opt their students out of such classes, even though polls show the general public overwhelmingly supports schools that teach sex education.

“Take the politics out of it, take the religion out of it and really focus on the science and what works for young people,” Barr said. “We have the answer, which is comprehensive sex education.”