I applaud you for talking about parental involvement and the opportunity to talk with their children about this most important topic.

I don’t think people “fear” sex education. I think they are degusted by the normalizing of teen sex and also the lowering the bar of behavioral expectations regarding self regulation and impulse control. Absolutely children should get some guidance and instruction on this topic, but graphic sex images and language does nothing but desensitize the child to this activity.

Parents also are being told over and over again that abstinence education does not work. The constant drumbeat that abstinence education is not evidenced based is old and tired. What about the Jemmott study?

Also, at the same time Planned Parenthood, SIECUS, Healthy Teen Network and Advocates for Youth coordinate their talking points about the futility of teaching abstinence education; they call their programs abstinence based. What is up with that? What about reaching the heart of a child with issues they are struggling with? What about teaching the skills to have a healthy relationship? How about substituting love education for sex education?

The Center for Relationship Education exists to educate, equip and empower individuals with the skills necessary to develop healthy relationships, build strong lifetime committed partnerships / marriages and form safe and stable families for the well-being of children, adults and communities. This is what adolescents want to know!

When we teach these life, love and leadership skills to adolescents, they respond well because we are not just imparting information, we are actually touching their heart!
To find out more www.myrelationshipcenter.org

Respectfully submitted,
Joneen Mackenzie RN

I'll agree on the mandate...its just sensible that this type of information would be inclusive of the curriculum....and I would advocate a 'pay it forward' approach in that students become advocates of sorts themsleves by taking their knowledge and not just talking to their parents about it but actually teaching their parents, this in turn creates the 'responsibility effect' as the student gains more respect for the information and may very well make better decisions in the near future regarding their own sexual habits...

I grew up in Central New Jersey in the 1960s and my public school offered age appropriate sex education beginning in the 3rd grade. The incidence of unintended pregnancies in my small school district was practically nonexistent because both boys and girls received the proper education and information about our bodies. The information was integrated into our weekly health classes. Why all the fuss about giving children appropriate information?

Knowledge is power. Mandatory sex-education classes will arm children with facts and help families discuss what is often an embarrassing subject.

Teen pregnancy is on the rise in the Unites States, and New York’s teen pregnancy rates are higher than the national average. Age-appropriate sex education can help turn this trend around. Studies show that students who take these classes delay the initiation of sex, have fewer partners, and are more likely to use contraception.

As parent, I support this policy to give students greater control over their health and well-being.

Jessica Lappin
Council Member
5th District – Manhattan

I agree with having the class in school even though, yes it is a parents job to talk to their children about abstinence but with the way kids are these days they are starting early and don't know what they are risking. I honestly think that when they take it in 10th grade they should bring bake the baby where they take the baby home for a weekend. This shows them what it is really like to have a baby and that it is possible for them to get pregnant and thats what they have to deal with.

It's about time!

This is necessary. I advocate an emphasis on responsible parenthood, along with developing a responsible attitude towards oneself and one's body, in the context of a more general discussion of the paired themes of liberty and and responsibility in the tenth grade advisory class that my school has developed. But this is such an important topic that we should circle back to it or at least touch on it every year, rather than focusing on it intently in one year and then forgetting about it for two before we come back to it in high school, by which time too many teens will have made babies.

This is an important subject that gets talked around, instead of about, too much. I also agree that abstinence discussions are essential to the subject. This needs to be done in the context of larger social issues like pressure to be sexual - in any way - from an early age. While licensed health teachers are the best people to run sex ed classes, I'd like to see the City make an effort to include guidance counselors/social workers. School staff who know the kids in a non-academic way and are trained to discuss sensitive subjects should be at the forefront of these much-needed abstinence and sexual-expectations-of-your-peers-type talks. They should be led in a discussion group format, not via normal pedagogy - I think we'd reach a lot more kids this way.

I applaud the decision to have more comprehensive sexuality education in schools. As a long-time educator I know how much misinformation young people get from popular culture. My undergraduate students think that sex is supposed to be like they've seen in porn, and the teenagers I've worked with are desperate for help in learning how to have meaningful relationships. The fact is that the average age of first intercourse is 17 years old...that means some kids have sex earlier and some later. They ALL need information and support to grow into sexually healthy adults.

I was at a PEP meeting tonight where the DOE mentioned that schools will have the ability to opt out of the program, if their parents push for that. I hope that the DOE will take the time to EDUCATE parents on the new mandatory sex education program, so that they can make an informed decision on whether or not it is the right program for their children/school.

I was told by a NYS high school health teacher in Rochester, NY that students who are receiving an IEP diploma are not mandeated to have sex education. Is this true?

I have conversations with my kids about sex whenever they ask - they are 9 and 11 - we talk about dating and boys and what it’s like/could be like for them to be gay, lesbian and/or bisexual and/or transgendered we talk about sexual feelings, and sexual behavior even though puberty hasn't started, they've heard things at school and on the bus and when they ask, I tell them what I know or I do my best to find out, because they and I need to have open communication with them and I don't want them to feel that diversity is moral political issue when it is not, nor that having sex before they are married is of that same issue, especially when it doesn't apply for their male counterpart. I also let them know that having someone pressure them to have sex or let someone pressure them to touch them or have them to someone else is WRONG and abusive, even if they are married, should they be, and that same pressure is wrong no matter whom they are with and that their bodies are solely their own, belonging only to them. My daughters know what a period is, even though they don't have one yet, and they understand what the menstrual blood does and what function in their bodies that it plays. As they begin to hormonally transform aka growth spurts (ever hear of those?) we talk with their pediatrician whom they have great rapport and beginning to become hormonally transformed, I know they will soon become young girls who will be capable of reproducing sexually.
The other thing here is that even those they can reproduce, doesn't mean that as a teenager they will be mature enough to assume the responsibilities of a parent if that should happen in their lives or that they'll even understand how to pair sex with emotions or getting an STD - what I won’t do is make them ignorant to reality in the hope that ignorance will cause them to abstain from sex.
”Statistics show that the Netherlands has the world's lowest rates of teenage pregnancy, abortion, and childbearing (Feijoo, 2008)". I have to disagree here in a way and to some extent, unless you are extremely sheltered you have children who have an idea of sex and are exposed to sex normally. “When children are taught that certain parts of their bodies are bad or dirty, they often grow into adults who are ashamed of their bodies, unable to accept or even feel their sexual feelings. When children learn that a supposedly benevolent god has created body parts and curiosity that can be dirty and dangerous, their eroticism often becomes the focus of terrible, lifelong internal conflict."
They see animals having sex and reproducing and understand the biology of it. Why do I sense this, religiosity about sex? Why is there such prudishness? Really? Everyone has sex - sexual relations is/are neutral, people however are not, their intentions are...there is rape, and abuse you get the picture. Perhaps instead of teaching about abstinence we should be teaching about rape and abuse as it pertains to sex, and instead of teaching about sex, sex, sex, sex, we should incorporate more biology to it on a health science class setting, instead of a moral value setting. If we want our children to have the values that we teach them to them, perhaps then we as the parents and the moral society that we choose to have them around should agree that we are instilling in them double standard of both self-regulation and self-impulse control, neither of which is either of your topics to be discussed, and should be yet "safe sex or abstinence" is.

When it comes to sex, one has to understand that for the majority concerning any individual, one must be biologically and chemically ready, aware for sex. If you teach your kids about how their bodies are evolving, then they will be better prepared to make better choices in regard to sex. With my kids, I could care less whether they are married or not. Marriage isn't a fairy tale, and if the girl gets pregnant, it’s not the "fix -it package" - This is not what we are teaching our youth, all we are doing is teaching them what happens after you do it, what goes on while you are doing it, and how not to do it, we don't teach them the evolution of sex, and in that regard, we are sadly lacking.
To help make young people’s sexuality less alien, some psychologists "remind people of the similarities between it and adult sexuality: both groups are challenged by performance pressure, the desire for validation, insufficient information, and inadequate communication skills. Both groups want sex to provide closeness, pleasure, feelings of being special and desired, and a chance for self-expression. But American society actually discourages young people from developing Sexual Intelligence; when it comes to sex, young people are a repressed minority. They suffer from the systematic withholding of sexual information, health services, and products." By the same turn the information that we put out to the public to other groups are for the adults of those groups and are only for children and juveniles when in relation to their abuse or exploitation. Here's something else to consider - "We give kids the most powerful communications device in human history—with virtually no training, instruction, or limits—and are shocked when they misuse it." With regard to our youth, there is even more perspectives to consider; "Isn’t it time for religious leaders to start talking about love and forgiveness rather than behaving like a political lobby? A report to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2007 determined that Title V abstinence Education programs did not work. With expressed zeal to protect the rights of the unborn, an always vocal campaign topic, how many legislators would be willing to adopt and love an unwanted child if the mother could be convinced to carry the baby to term? Perhaps religious leaders and politicians, who really value a right to life, should be vigorously working to prevent Child Abuse in this country."

I am 21 and have a 2 yr. old daughter. I am very happy that this school is taking these steps to help teens to learn about how to be safe when it comes to sex and explaining different topics, because ONLY teahing abstinence is unrealistic alot of teens do have sex and if they are going to do it at least we are teaching them to be safe and respect their own bodies and protect their bodies against pregnancy and stds. some people say they are too young maybe maybe not but at least we are teaching them to be responsible when it comes to their sex life and to me that is very important when going into adulthood. and i know i didnt learn what i really needed in my schools sex ed class all they talk about from 6th - 12th grade is the stds (which is very impotant) BUT its also important to discuss other important things when it comes to sex so that the ones who choose to take that step an be wise in making that huge decision and alot of parents dont talk about the indepth sex topic with their kids either because its taboo in their house or maybe they think their child is too young or maybe they just dont know how to start the conversation. Here is an example i started dating my now husband when he was 17 almost 18 i on the other hand was already 18 but his parents never ever talked about sex with him so he learned all of the stuff he knew from friends and magazines his school didnt have a sex ed class (it is a very christian school) all they would tell there students was about abstinence AND in the handbook it said if you have premarital sex you will be expelled if they find out which is wild to me and trust me you do not want your precious children to learn about sex through peers some of the stuff other kids tell you can be harmfull very harmfull ex. one girl told me that a way to prevent pregnancy is to drink a capfull of bleach before you have sex (that can kill you) isnt that crazy or another person told me if you put one yellow skittle in your vagina and let it melt before you do it it will prevent pregnancy because of a chemical in the yellow dye! trust me there are many other myths