TYLER, Texas — The Texas State Board of Education approved a new sexual education policy for middle school students on Friday. The curriculum will include forms of birth control beyond abstinence.
Students will learn about effectiveness, risks and failure rates for birth control as well about sexually transmitted diseases. However, other topics like consent, gender identity, sexual orientation and abortions were not included in the new policy.
Emily Scheinfeld, a professor at Kennesaw State University and previous professor at the University of Texas at Tyler, researches interpersonal health communications. She feels excluding dialogue about comprehensive sex education will not help students during a digital age where they can go online to find answers to basic questions.
"They know the biology, they know what they should be doing," Scheinfeld said. "So sex education, both from parent and schools, should be talking about more than biology. What we need to be talking about are the emotions involved with sex and the conversations involved with sex, how to engage in condom negotiation, how to gain consent."
Her research has found the more a parent discusses sex with a developing adolescent, "they're more likely to have better health outcomes."
"If you talk about sex, you will then destigmatize it and make it normal, which if we think about it, sex is 100% normal," she explained. "So many people think... if you tell them or talk to them about sex you're giving them permission, it's actually just the opposite, right? You're like, there's this process, there's this thing, and then it delays the onset because they know how to engage in these processes better and more safely."
Scheinfeld said excluding talk of consent can lead to students developing unhealthy relationships in the future. The MeToo movement over the last several years has shown just how unclear consent can be.
"If you talk about consent, and how to gain it, and what it is, and specifically what it is not, I think both men and women, whatever their sexual orientation, are more likely to engage in those behaviors," Scheinfeld said.
Middle school is a time in many students' lives where they start going through puberty and enter into relationships.
It's estimated that 1 in 4 people identify as LGBTQ. Scheinfeld said many people fear retaliation if they express their sexual interests to others, and schools could be the only place students feel safe to learn about sexual orientation.
"If we don't normalize this and allow this community, especially at a younger age, to feel comfortable in their skin, comfortable in their sexual identity, it can result in unhealthy relationships, mental health issues, potentially suicide," she said.
Texas elementaries and middle schools have to offer health education for kindergarten through eighth grade. However, the state does not enforce that schools teach sex education.
The new curriculum is the first change to the state’s sex-ed curriculum since 1997.
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