<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By: Mackenzie Mays<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Publisher: Center for Health Journalism<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Date: August 4, 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year, a 13-year-old boy in Mendota raised his hand in class and asked Kayla Wilson what age he had to be to buy condoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilson, who teaches sex education for the Fresno County Office of Education<\/a>, told him there is no age restriction. She was stunned to find out a local store had refused to sell the boy condoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe next time I came back, he told me he had gone to four stores in the city, and none of them would sell them to him,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cWe\u2019re still a very conservative place, as we all know. The sad thing is people have this false ideology that by teaching kids about sex that we\u2019re promoting sex. When really, that\u2019s not true at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The California Healthy Youth Act<\/a> went into effect in 2016 and requires that middle and high schools teach unbiased and medically accurate sex education, including lessons on birth control and abortion. But there is concern about how much support the curriculum is getting in the politically conservative central San Joaquin Valley, which has a history of pushback<\/a> against such lessons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wilson has had intense conversations with local school board members and parents who think sex education is a personal matter that should be taught at home \u2013 not in school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNobody is pro-teens-having-sex, but we don\u2019t talk about it. It\u2019s still taboo,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen we talk to them about drugs and alcohol, it\u2019s not because we condone it, it\u2019s because we know that they could cause harm. It\u2019s the same thing with sex. As a community, our goal should be to make sure that our students are getting through high school as well-adjusted, healthy adults. So we need to talk about all the things that could impact that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Right and wrong\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For years, Fresno Unified school board president Brooke Ashjian has opted his children out of sex education classes in the district he was elected to serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t want someone else teaching our kids about morality, and what was right and what was wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the role of a father and mother: You bring a child into the world and you talk to them about things that matter. With society going away from church \u2013 whatever church that is \u2013 you\u2019re not getting the first crack at that kid. Somebody else is. And that\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Mormon and a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, Ashjian says Fresno Unified<\/a> will follow the law, but he is blunt about his personal beliefs regarding some of the lessons now mandated in schools, including teaching LGBT-inclusive sex education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy biggest fear in teaching this \u2013 which we\u2019re going to do it because it\u2019s the law \u2013 but you have kids who are extremely moldable at this stage, and if you start telling them that LGBT is OK and that it\u2019s a way of life, well maybe you just swayed the kid to go that way,\u201d Ashjian said. \u201cIt\u2019s so important for parents to teach these Judeo-Christian philosophies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ashjian is also anti-abortion, and takes issue with the state\u2019s mandate that students learn about abortion as an option for pregnancy. The law also requires lessons on adoption and \u201csafe surrender<\/a>,\u201d which allows parents to confidentially drop off their baby at a designated location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “If you start telling them that LGBT is ok and that it’s a way of life, well maybe you just swayed the kid to go that way.” -Fresno Unified school board president Brooke Ashjian<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s certainly a lot of psychological effects that come from abortion that people need to be aware of,\u201d Ashjian said. \u201cYour life is a lot easier by not doing it. Look at these poor girls who get raped and have to have an abortion. If that\u2019s the way they\u2019ve got to go, God bless them. But think of all the repercussions that come later in life, mental and psychological.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Steven Fogg, a Clovis Unified<\/a> trustee, also pointed to his Mormon faith, and said he finds himself caught between his beliefs and the new law. He says he urges his adult children, 18 and 20, to practice abstinence until they\u2019re married. While abstinence-only curriculum is forbidden under the Healthy Youth Act, abstinence is included among the required lessons. Prior to the law, a Fresno County judge ruled against Clovis Unified\u2019s abstinence-only courses<\/a>, which were brought to court after a lesson compared a girl who was not a virgin to a dirty shoe<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYour life is easier and better when you live certain moral values. But I put my personal values and judgments aside in order to help these people,\u201d Fogg said. \u201cAs school systems, we have to step in where parents have failed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clovis Unified has bucked state directives before. In 2016, parents campaigned for the school board to fight laws that allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice<\/a>. Also last year, the school board voted to uphold a strict dress code despite concerns that the policy violated gender-rights laws <\/a>\u2013 only to overturn that decision later amid threats of lawsuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are a very conservative community. Many of us have similar values in our school systems, and we promote that. That\u2019s why we move here. Nevertheless, we\u2019ve got to follow the law, and we can\u2019t ignore those who have a different lifestyle than we do,\u201d Fogg said. \u201cThe problem is when those with other lifestyles push too far and try to change us \u2026 The city of Clovis won\u2019t put up with that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Gerardi, CEO of Right to Life<\/a>, an anti-abortion organization based in Fresno, promotes abstinence-based lessons, despite overwhelming research that it is the least effective form of sex education. He says the Healthy Youth Act is another battle the Valley must face as an outlier in a liberal state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI wish there were a way more conservative people who oppose abortion and think it\u2019s morally wrong, who are running the schools, could have some way to object. That\u2019s the problem with living in a state of 40 million people,\u201d Gerardi said. \u201cI think it\u2019s hard to draw a straight-line conclusion that conservative politics lead to more teen pregnancies. These are kids from poor homes, maybe homes that don\u2019t value education the same way \u2013 possibly from immigrant families \u2013 maybe there\u2019s not the same emphasis on the proper ordering of: graduate high school, get married, then have a baby.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p> “It’s alarming that The Board President of Califoronia’s fourth largest school district is making public statements that perpetuate medically inaccurate information about abortion and that openly stigmatize and shame LGBTQ students.” -ACLU attorney Jennifer Chou<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Jennifer Chou, a reproductive justice attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California<\/a>, has been leading \u201cKnow Your Rights<\/a>\u201d sessions on sex education across the Valley \u2013 teaching students to be the whistleblowers if their schools aren\u2019t providing them with the lessons now mandated by law. She called remarks like Ashjian\u2019s \u201cirresponsible and harmful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s alarming that the board president of California\u2019s fourth-largest school district is making public statements that perpetuate medically inaccurate information about abortion and that openly stigmatize and shame LGBTQ students,\u201d Chou said. \u201cThe board president works for all students, and he should be reminding kids that school is a safe and accepting place for all of them, in all their diversity. We know that LGBTQ-inclusive sex education reduces bullying and harassment and creates a positive effect on school climate overall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do we know it\u2019s being taught?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Before the Healthy Youth Act was passed, Fresno Unified was one of few in the state that didn\u2019t teach comprehensive sex education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Facing budget cuts in 2011, the district ended its Sociology for Living<\/a> classes, the only course covering some sexual health topics in schools. The nearly 50 teachers who taught the class either switched subjects, retired or were laid off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pat Chacon, who has taught in Fresno Unified for 30 years, was one of the sociology teachers who had to switch subjects. When the district made the decision to cut the courses in the face of the region\u2019s high teen pregnancy and STD rates,<\/a> she was stunned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She and other teachers attended school board meetings and met with every trustee personally to urge them to keep the class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn essence, sex ed was wiped out. We tried to save the course. We fought really hard,\u201d said Chacon, who now teaches child development. \u201cWhat\u2019s ironic about the whole thing is, in education, we\u2019re always talking about how we have to help these kids get what they don\u2019t get at home, especially in a place like Fresno Unified that has all these socioeconomic problems. We\u2019re giving them breakfast, lunch and dinner, yet we don\u2019t want to give them this, which can have a huge impact on their quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p> There are still a lot of school “districts that are in denial about the law – that say they will decide what goes on in their classrooms.” -Fresno Barrios Unidos director Socorro Santillan<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In light of the state law, Fresno Unified adopted Positive Prevention Plus<\/a> \u2013 a sex education curriculum recommended by the California Department of Education<\/a>. While all schools are required to teach specific lessons regarding sexual health, advocates say there\u2019s no way to know students are getting what they\u2019re supposed to. Schools can decide if they want to train their own teachers to give the lessons, or hire an outside organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robert Oakes, a spokesman for the Department of Education, said while the state offers online resources for schools to implement the law, there\u2019s no auditing happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis legislation assigned responsibilities to individual school districts, and the only role CDE has is distributing the kind of information you see on our web page,\u201d Oakes said in an email. \u201cWe have only one staff person who works on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For people like Socorro Santillan, who oversees Fresno Barrios Unidos<\/a> \u2013 an organization that has been teaching sex education for decades \u2013 the law is being met with cautious optimism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe still get pushback. There are still a lot of school districts that are in denial about the law \u2013 that say they will decide what goes on in their classrooms. They want to pick and choose what the students learn, and what they don\u2019t,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a city, we\u2019re very conservative. When those in decision-making roles are making decisions based on their own personal beliefs, it becomes a challenge because you\u2019re not able to see the situation from a young person\u2019s perspective. You\u2019re assuming everyone has a mama and papa at home, and goes to church every Sunday and has all this support from the community. The thing is, the majority of our youth aren\u2019t getting that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n