Board Approves new sex ed Policy
Texas Education Board members voted against proposals to teach middle and high school students about consent, sexual orientation or gender identity. The board will take a final vote Friday.
Starting in 2022, seventh and eighth grade students in Texas will learn about forms of birth control beyond abstinence, but middle schoolers still won't have to learn about the importance of consent or the definitions of gender identity and sexual orientation.
Over the last several months, panels of educators and medical professionals formulated recommendations to overhaul the health and sex education policies. The Texas State Board of Education, which determines what 5.5 million Texas public school students learn, has heard from hundreds of educators, advocates and experts across the state throughout the process.
The 15-member, Republican-dominated board took a preliminary vote Wednesday to overhaul the minimum standards for what Texas students learn about health and sex, a process that has taken more than a year. It will take a final vote Friday. This marks the board's first thorough revision to its sex education policy since 1997 and will affect millions of students in the state.
Board members included language teaching middle school students to "analyze the effectiveness and the risks and failure rates ... of barrier protection and other contraceptive methods in the prevention of STDs, STIs and pregnancy," in addition to the importance of abstinence. Currently, learning about birth control methods beyond abstinence is only a requirement in high school, where health education is an optional course.
Texas elementary and middle schools must offer health education for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, but high school students can meet state graduation requirements without taking those classes. Texas also doesn't mandate that schools teach sex education. Schools that do so must stress abstinence as the preferred means of birth control for unmarried young people, and parents can opt their children out of any lesson they choose.
Much of Wednesday's debate revolved around whether to include lessons on consent, gender identity and sexual orientation.
Ruben Cortez, a Brownsville Democrat, unsuccessfully attempted to add language teaching middle school students about "bullying and harassment because of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression."
"That language is nowhere to be found anywhere else, and again there’s this lack of awareness and lack of attention to this specific issue," board member Marisa Perez-Diaz, a Converse Democrat, said in support of her colleague. "I think that the language needs to be more explicit, especially at the middle school area and at a time where our adolescents are experiencing a lot of changes."
Republican members voted against the language. Instead, they supported teaching students to prevent "sexual bullying," which confused some members who seemed unable to define the term.
"If we can't define it, then how do we expect teachers to teach it and students to learn it? If we don't know what sexual bullying is, then what is a teacher required to teach?" said Georgina Pérez, an El Paso Democrat.
"When it happens, you know it when you see it," said Pat Hardy, a Fort Worth Republican.
"It's a form of sexual harassment, essentially, not in the workplace," concluded board chair Keven Ellis, a Lufkin Republican.
Cortez tried to add a similar sentence in the high school standards, suggesting teachers "explain why everyone deserves to be treated with respect, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity." His proposal again failed to pass.
"We've heard the testimony. These students are out there. They've talked to us in September and they're asking us to hear their voices, and it seems like only a few of us are listening to what they're asking of us, but these are real experiences that our kids have," he said. "It seems like it's falling on party lines, which is sad to me because I think we're here as representatives of this body to represent the voices of every child, and I think we're leaving out a segment of kids when we take these types of actions."
The vote, which was largely along party lines, aligned with actions from Texas Republican leaders to target LGBTQ rights and protections over the last several years. In 2017, they unsuccessfully pushed a policy preventing transgender people from using public bathrooms that match their gender identity. Last year, they encouraged an investigation into whether a mother supporting her child's gender transition was committing "child abuse."
Earlier this week, dozens of people showed up at a virtual public hearing to encourage the board to adopt comprehensive sex education that explained options for contraception, the importance of consent, and the definitions of gender identity and sexual orientation. Some chastised the board for refusing to specifically reference LGBTQ students in its standards.
The message that refusal gave was "people like me don't matter, young people like me don't matter and people in the LGBTQ community should just stay in the closet," said Jules Mandel, outreach and advocacy coordinator for left-leaning Texas Freedom Network, a board watchdog.
Others showed up at that Monday hearing in favor of abstinence-only education, which promotes teaching students to avoid sex until marriage. Several attendees discouraged the board from including the concept of consent in the standards, arguing it would pressure teenagers to have sex.
"Consent puts yes to sex as an option on the table for teenagers," said Dan Bailey, leader of a youth organization called Just Say YES, which encourages young people to refrain from all forms of sexual activity.
On Wednesday evening, Perez-Diaz unsuccessfully proposed teaching high school students to "analyze the similarities and differences between legal consent to sexual activity and affirmative consent to sexual activity." She said it was important for students to understand the concept before leaving for higher education and the workforce.
Federal data shows Texas consistently has one of the highest teen birth rates in the country, which studies show correlates with an emphasis on abstinence-only education. About 39% of Texas high school students report having had sex, but less than half of them used condoms and a small percentage used birth control pills.
Experts including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association oppose abstinence-only education and champion comprehensive sex education. This type of sex education prioritizes accurate and exhaustive information about contraception, human sexuality and sexually transmitted infections.
Texas is Revising its Sex Education Standards
The State Board of Education is taking up the first revision of sex ed curriculum in more than 20 years. LGBTQ students say they're being excluded again.
Texas is revising its sex education standards, but they'll likely remain silent on LGBTQ issues
"Texas is revising its sex education standards, but they'll likely remain silent on LGBTQ issues" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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By the age of 16, Atticus Sandlin has become a sex education expert.
As a student at Hebron High School in Lewisville Independent School District, in the suburbs of Dallas, he built what he calls a "sex ed mini career," educating himself through internet research, conferences and advocacy groups — then turning around and educating his peers.
Last school year, he says, students would find him in the halls to ask questions like, "What is a hymen?" or "Does this count as sex?" He handed out condoms, pamphlets and dental dams to anyone who asked, and highlighted the importance of respecting other people's boundaries. He even taught sexual education classes specifically for LGBTQ students through Youth First, a program in North Texas for queer teens.
Texas does not require public schools to teach LGBTQ issues in sex education, an omission that frustrates Sandlin, who is bisexual and a transgender boy. "There are some queer people who don't do their own research, and they don't get information from school or any resources," said Sandlin, now a high school junior at public iSchool Virtual Academy of Texas. "It's important that they get that information even when they don't have access to it or it's not safe for them to get access anywhere else."
This week, the Texas State Board of Education, which determines what millions of public school students learn, is expected to approve new standards outlining how schools should teach health and sexual education — the first revisions to that statewide policy since 1997. At an initial public hearing this June, many students, teachers and advocates asked the board to require that students learn about sexual orientation and gender identity, especially since LGBTQ students are more likely to be discriminated against and bullied.
One study conducted by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law estimates that as many as 158,500 LGBT youth live in Texas, about 2% of the state's youth population.
But the final proposal, set for debate and a preliminary vote this week with final approval expected in November, still excludes any direct mention of LGBTQ issues.
Over the last several years, Texas Republican leaders have targeted LGBTQ rights and protections. In 2017, they unsuccessfully pushed a policy preventing transgender people from using public bathrooms that match their gender identity, and last year they encouraged an investigation into whether a mother supporting her child's gender transition was committing "child abuse."
At its June hearing on the new policy, the 15-member elected education board — 10 Republicans and 5 Democrats — split down partisan lines, with Democrats pushing for explicit inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity and Republicans largely opposed.
"There likely will not be consensus on this," said Keven Ellis, a Lufkin Republican, who chairs the board, at the June meeting. He told The Texas Tribune in an e-mail that he supported teaching about "different types of bullying, including bullying for sexual reasons."
All Texas public schools must offer health education for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, but health education is optional in high school. The board is considering requiring all seventh and eighth grade health teachers to include lessons about contraceptive methods for the first time, now only a requirement in high school health.
Schools are not required to teach sexual education, but those that do must stress abstinence as the preferred choice for unmarried young people and spend more time on it than any other sexual behavior. Parents can opt their children out of any lesson they want.
Dee Lepine, a 17-year-old senior at Timber Creek High School in Keller ISD, remembers eighth grade health teachers showing students pictures of people with sexually transmitted diseases and telling them not to have sex. That was the last health class Lepine, who is nonbinary and uses gender-neutral pronouns, took. There was no mention in the class of sexual orientation or gender identity.
"I think just knowing that having attractions when you're a teenager is normal and you shouldn't scare kids with scary images," Lepine said. "It's really important that they don't feel like, you know, a freak, because everyone deals with it."
Lepine remembers learning the details of sex education from the media and friends, who were similarly uneducated and confused.
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Sandlin can clearly remember one of the most uncomfortable assignments he received in a public school sexual education class. Each eighth grade student was given a cup with liquid and told to pour it back and forth among other students' cups.
"At the end of it, they put drops in all of our cups. If your cup turned purple, you had a [sexually transmitted infection]," said Sandlin. "I just remember it being awkward. I was like, are they really trying to get us to simulate sex?"
And most important, the educator at the front of the classroom didn't include very many lessons that would apply to LGBTQ teens. Sandlin sat in the class with a few friends taking notice of the gaps in the lessons, like the statement that all sex risks pregnancy, which is untrue for many queer people.
In high school, whenever Sandlin realized a class had a substitute teacher, he would run to the front of the room to explain his chosen name and pronouns, which differ from the name and gender he was given at birth. Some teachers made a point of ignoring his requests — an indication, he believes, that comprehensive health education classes would be just as useful for those outside of the queer community.
"Pretty much every queer person I know has experienced some level of bullying or just plain ignorance," he said. "One time, I had a teacher straight up say, 'I'm not going to call you that.'" As he's gotten more confident, Sandlin has reported such incidents to counselors, but said it's scary to go up against a teacher.
The State Board of Education debated the importance of adding gender identity and sexual orientation into the standards in June, and a few Republicans suggested strengthening the lessons around bullying, making it clear that students know that they should respect everyone. But they largely opposed making direct references to LGBTQ students.
"If we start delineating things, we need to go back and make sure we include everybody else," said Ken Mercer, a San Antonio Republican on the board.
"If we can save a life because we include this and we allow these students to find that there is no shame in their gender identity, isn't it worth it to you? It's worth it to me," said Ruben Cortez, a Brownsville Democrat on the board. "Hearing and knowing of teens that have [killed themselves] ... because of some of the things they deal with, if we in Texas have the opportunity to correct some of this and save one life, I think it's worth it."
Georgina Pérez, an El Paso Democrat on the board, said including LGBTQ students in the health standards would parallel work the board has already done creating standards for Mexican American and African American studies courses over the last couple of years. "LGBTQI is an identity, an identity that's not reflected in any of our curriculum," she said.
"Racism is a lot bigger problem than the sexual thing as far as people being picked on for different things," responded Pat Hardy, a Fort Worth Republican on the board.
The state sets minimum standards for what should be taught, but districts are allowed to include additional topics they feel would benefit their students. Some districts, including Austin ISD and Fort Worth ISD, have adjusted their own health and sex education policies to include lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Conservative groups such as Texas Values have headed the fight against these policies, considering them pro-LGBT "indoctrination" and urging parents to opt their children out of sexuality courses. Left-leaning advocacy groups such as Texas Freedom Network, Planned Parenthood and the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy have pushed in the other direction.
Sock Trimarco, who is "queer in most senses of the word" and uses gender-neutral pronouns, has taken sex ed workshops through Planned Parenthood after learning abstinence-only sex education in the online public school Texas Connections Academy.
The 17-year-old shies away from coming out as transgender and nonbinary in school or out in the world, worried about people "pushing back or being upset" or even resorting to violence. "I have to think in my head and say, 'Should I introduce myself as my deadname, or should I introduce myself as my name?'" Trimarco said, referring to their previous name.
Sex education that includes LGBTQ students benefits everyone, they said. "To teach people not only that it's OK to be you, but it's also OK for other people to be queer."
Disclosure: Texas Freedom Network and Planned Parenthood have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/09/08/texas-state-board-education-sex-ed/.
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