Well, Texas Does Have an Education Problem -- at Least in Sex Ed
Would anybody know what the STD rate is in the MaSO School District?
TomR
Tom_R said:
Would anybody know what the STD rate is in the MaSO School District?
TomR
I doubt it. Barring an outbreak that would require intervention by public health authorities, that information is almost certain to be confidential. But maybe I'm wrong and it is tracked somehow in a publicly-accessible manner...
weirdbeard said:
Tom_R said:
Would anybody know what the STD rate is in the MaSO School District?
TomR
I doubt it. Barring an outbreak that would require intervention by public health authorities, that information is almost certain to be confidential. But maybe I'm wrong and it is tracked somehow in a publicly-accessible manner...
The names of the infected people are confidential. But STDs are reportable diseases. You can find out the numbers from the state health dept.
Here's the stats... at least from 2012...
http://www.state.nj.us/health/std/archive2012.shtml
SO_Dad said:
Here's the stats... at least from 2012...
http://www.state.nj.us/health/std/archive2012.shtml
One can only hope that this alleviates Mr. Tom R's concern about rampant STDs in our area.
nohero,
I hadn't realized that STD's were rampant in our area. Thanks for the information.
TomR
Tom_R said:
nohero,
I hadn't realized that STD's were rampant in our area. Thanks for the information.
TomR
Well, apparently they are not. Your question suggested that you were concerned. Again, I hope you have been reassured.
When I worked on a middle school Health textbook series years ago, we were forced to create a special Texas edition that omitted all sex education other than abstinence. Apparently, nothing's changed.
I do know from my 8th grader and her Health class that they are now referred to as STIs.
A friend of mine on facebook posted something about sex ed. I made a comment and then the most amazing thing happened. My Hygiene (sex ed) teacher from 8th grade piped in. This was today. He was a great guy. He set his own curriculum. He said there were no text books at the time. It was 1973.
Tom_Reingold said:
A friend of mine on facebook posted something about sex ed. I made a comment and then the most amazing thing happened. My Hygiene (sex ed) teacher from 8th grade piped in. This was today. He was a great guy. He set his own curriculum. He said there were no text books at the time. It was 1973.
Funny you should mention that. I was in middle school in Texas in the early '70s. My mother was a school nurse and was developing a sex ed program. (I wonder if she decided to do it herself, or was told to do it by the administration, or how it came about.) She sent off for whatever film strips and educational materials she could find and previewed them on us and a bunch of neighborhood kids in the den at home. Boy, were we the best-informed kids at school.
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Wonderful article from Slate on Texas stupidity:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2015/05/05/crane_high_school_loves_abstinence_education_has_a_1_in_15_chlamydia_rate.html?google_editors_picks=true
Here's the article:
When you're on the high school speech-and-debate team in rural West Texas, you spend a lot of time on weekends napping in school buses in front of other small-town high schools. For me, one of those was Crane High School, where I wiled away many hours playing card games while waiting for my round. From San Antonio Express-News:
News West 9 spoke with some parents in the area who expressed shock and horror at the situation. “I mean I have a kid, honestly I don't want my kid growing up in an area where nasty stuff like that happens,” Edward Martinez told the station.
People often express shock when things like this happen, but having grown up in the area, this is literally the least surprising thing ever to me. The combination of a repressive culture and a small population where everyone is up in everyone else's business all the time makes it hard for people— especially teenagers—to take necessary precautions against disease transmission: getting tested, communicating openly with partners, obtaining condoms.
The area's repressive attitudes toward sex are illustrated in the school's sex education program, which takes up three days in the fall semester and, of course, is focused on abstinence. Raw Story reports that in 2012, the School Health Advisory Committee recommended a program titled Worth the Wait for that three-day course; the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States pointed out that Worth the Wait discourages condom use by suggesting they're just going to fail you anyway.
The school district's superintendent, Jim T. Rumage, stands by his chlamydia-friendly strategy of telling kids to wait until marriage. “If kids are not having any sexual activity, they can’t get this disease,” he told the Express-News in a phone interview. That is true! Also true: If you never eat any food, you probably won't get cavities, and so there's no point in manufacturing toothbrushes.
Texas is the eighth-worst state in the country for STI transmission rates. West Texas, in particular, clings to the belief that we can finger-wag away our entire species' storied history of enjoying sex. Two nearby counties, Midland and Ector,were Nos. 19 and 21 in 2013 among the most sexually infectious counties in the state. (The number of young men flowing in to work the oil fields—and to drink and party and screw around after work—has not helped.) Lubbock, Texas, which is so Bible Belt they only just recently started allowing the sale of alcohol, ranked No. 11. But maybe the Crane High School story, which is winning headlines like the Daily Caller's (“This Texas High School Is CRAWLING WITH VENEREAL DISEASE”) might finally embarrass locals enough to consider changing their ways.
While the future of sex ed in Crane is up in the air, there is one thing I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt: The rumor mill at this high school is churning about who infected who, and where, and when.