Sex Education

SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Stuart Reid, R-Ogden, thinks the responsibility to teach sex education belongs in the home, not in the school system.

Reid is sponsoring legislation this session to require the State Board of Education offer training to parents regarding sex education. The State Board of Education would be required to develop a curriculum parents can use to educate their children on the subject. The program would be Internet-based and pamphlets would be available for parents who requested them. Educators would also be required to notify parents the program is available twice a year.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- In a high school classroom about a dozen students watched as a woman from an AIDS prevention group demonstrated how to apply a condom using only her mouth.

The scene in an elective class two years ago angered opponents of sex education, and so Tennessee in May adopted the nation’s first state law defining activities that legislators said lead to intercourse —mutual masturbation, fondling and oral and anal sex - and banning their "promotion" in public schools.

Everyone remembers their sexual education experience, if they actually got one.

Your teacher walks in front of the class and says, "All right, boys and girls, today we are learning about sex."

The people in the back of the room snicker, other students have their heads down or are red-faced. Some kids are scared and some just want to run away.

Typical feelings, but what most kids don't understand is what they will learn may be the difference between getting pregnant or not, or contracting a sexually transmitted disease or not.

FARMINGTON — Once again, Gov. Gary Herbert took political heat from his Republican opponents, but this time it was the lieutenant governor who defended the incumbent’s positions.

Lt. Gov. Greg Bell participated in a debate for Republican candidates at the Farmington Community Center on Friday afternoon. The event was sponsored by the Davis County Young Republicans.

About 150 people attended to hear the positions of the candidates, including David Kirkham, Morgan Philpot, Lane Ronnow, William Skokos and Ken Sumsion.

I'm sure there were political considerations in how he did it -- right after the GOP party caucuses is pretty obvious -- but one reason Gov. Gary Herbert found the courage to veto that odious sex ed bill at all was that a lot of people wrote him really good letters asking him to do so.

Be prepared. While this motto works for Scouts, the law enforces preparedness by requiring classes and education that must take place in order to access various legal remedies and privileges.

House Bill 363, which is awaiting Gov. Gary Herbert’s signature (or veto), would prohibit local school boards from educating our students on the full spectrum of reproductive health, harshly limiting the discussion of sex to abstinence and within marriage. (Note: Herbert vetoed the sex ed bill late Friday night, after this column was written and posted.)