Read it on Salon
Join HULU, SEINFELD and SALON to celebrate Festivus!
Sponsored Post
Monday, Jul 14, 2014 3:40 PM UTC
High school student files human rights complaint over abstinence-only sex ed course
Updated: How a teen's legal action stopped a "slut-shaming" sex ed course from being taught in public schools
Topics: Sex Education, abstinence-only sex ed, Religious Freedom, Canada, Human Rights, human rights commission, Slut shaming, abstinence-only, Sex, Life News, News
UPDATE: Thanks to Emily Dawson’s complaint to the Alberta Human Rights Commission, the superintendent of Edmonton Public Schools has announced that the Pregnancy Care Centre will no longer teach sex ed classes in the district, urging schools to find new, non-religious-based educators for the upcoming academic year. In a Facebook post, Superintendent Darrel Robertson said the district would be reviewing its health and wellness guidelines in the fall.
“Our expectation is that sexual health education is covered in the CALM curriculum in a scientifically-sound manner, and in a classroom that’s inclusive, respectful of individual difference and without religious bias,” Robertson wrote. “We want our students to feel free to ask questions without fear of shame or discrimination. We want them to have all the knowledge they need to make healthy personal choices and decisions. That is, and always will be, our goal.”
In addition to being considered inaccurate and ineffective, abstinence-only sex education might also be considered a violation of basic human rights. A Canadian teen and her mother have filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission over a high school sex education course that the student was required to take, which she claims promoted an abstinence-only message replete with evangelical religious sentiment.
Last year, Emily Dawson, now 18, participated in a two-day in-school seminar ostensibly devoted to sex ed, run by a third-party group that the Edmonton Public School Board hired. The group, Canada-based Pregnancy Care Centre, has been linked to the American anti-choice network Care-Net. According to Dawson, the course — which was a required component of her curriculum — reflected the organizations’ values, but not sound science. The teen said the course instructor included shocking material that flew in the face of accepted medical research on sex and sexuality, and, to top things off, promoted harmful stereotypes about gender roles and appropriate sexual behavior.
“She did a lot of slut-shaming to the women, and pointed out the guys as horn-dogs,” Dawson told the Edmonton Journal. “She really ridiculed single-parent families, she made it sound like they all give birth to juvenile delinquents.” Additionally, the teen said, questions about same-sex relationships were disregarded entirely. “All those questions were shut down right away. [The instructor] just said, ‘We’re not here to discuss that.’”
Most Read
