Just in time for back to school, we have some disturbing news from the Arizona public school system. Earlier this week, one Arizona mom, Suzanne Young, posted a picture to Twitter of a sticker her son was required to place on the inside of his science textbook.
The sticker stated: “The Gilbert Public School District supports the state of Arizona’s strong interest in promoting childbirth and adoption over elective abortion. The District is also in support of promoting abstinence as the most effective way to eliminate the potential for unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. If you have questions concerning sexual intercourse, contraceptives, pregnancy, adoption, or abortion, we encourage you to speak with your parents.” Sorry kids, it looks like you’re on your own. Good luck talking to your parents.
Apparently Arizona doesn’t have a law that requires schools to teach sexuality education or sexually transmitted disease (STD)/HIV education. Seriously. To make matters worse, Arizona law does state that if a school chooses to teach these topics, instruction must be age-appropriate and must stress abstinence. So basically this is what they’re dealing with:
Just so you have the full story, this is the same district where the school board voted to remove a page from an honors biology textbook last year because it contained “information about birth control and abortion.” These poor kids can’t catch a break. This decision was later overturned, but it looks like history is going to repeat itself. As if being in high school wasn’t hard enough.
Images via Ktar, Twitter, cyrtest, Tumblr
Via Patheos
