School-Based Sexuality Education: The Issues and Challenges

This article discusses the controversy and challenges that surrounded providing sex education in the U.S., including the Franklin Country (North Carolina) school board ordering the removal of textbook chapters dealing with sexual behavior, contraception, HIV/AIDs, and STIs from 9th graders health textbooks, and the state requirement to promote abstinence until marriage. It discusses the abstinence only movement and reviews efforts to undermine sexuality education dating back to the 1960s, while also providing the teachers' perspectives and difficulties faced. It calls for the need to improve teacher training, form local advisory boards, involve parents and promote the benefits of comprehensive sexuality programs.