{"id":31169,"date":"2019-01-24T14:08:42","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T20:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=31169"},"modified":"2019-01-25T09:55:45","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T15:55:45","slug":"bills-aim-to-add-training-on-consent-to-patchwork-of-sex-education-in-oklahoma-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2019\/01\/24\/bills-aim-to-add-training-on-consent-to-patchwork-of-sex-education-in-oklahoma-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Bills aim to add training on consent to patchwork of sex education in Oklahoma schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_31170\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-31170\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0619-2-1920x1277.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0619-2-1920x1277.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0619-2-672x447.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0619-2-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0619-2-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0619-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0619-2-620x412.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0619-2-1624x1080.jpg 1624w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0619-2.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jackie Fortier \/ StateImpact<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kjelsea McDonald sits at the Crooked Arrow Cafe in Seiling, Okla. She worked as a waitress at the cafe when she was a high school student and pregnant with her first child.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kjelsea McDonald just finished her shift as a nuclear medicine technologist at the Seiling Regional Medical Center. She\u2019s still wearing her teal scrubs at the Crooked Arrow Cafe during the dinner rush. She worked as a waitress here for years, including when she was a junior in high school \u2014 and pregnant.<\/span><\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/564048984&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=true&show_comments=false&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=false&visual=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><!--more--><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen you hear \u2018teen pregnancy,\u2019 you think, \u2018That would never be me,\u2019 or \u2018That would never be my kid.\u2019 And then all of a sudden it is, it literally could be anybody,\u201d she said. \u201cI would not have picked me out as someone who would have been a teen mom until I became one.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">McDonald doesn\u2019t remember getting any education on safe sex, pregnancy prevention or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/std\/life-stages-populations\/adolescents-youngadults.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sexually transmitted diseases<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> when she attended Seiling Public Schools. But five years after graduation she remembers that chlamydia, human papillomavirus, and herpes were the most prevalent STDs in the student population. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI wasn\u2019t properly educated,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that safe sex is super important to teach, just all across the board.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What does sex education look like in Oklahoma? <\/span><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">About <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.guttmacher.org\/state-policy\/explore\/sex-and-hiv-education\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">half of the states mandate sex education<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in schools, with the option for parents or guardians to opt their kids out. But in Oklahoma, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchhstp\/newsroom\/2015\/nhpc-press-release-schools-teaching-prevention.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">decision to teach sex education<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is left up to local school boards.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it is taught, sex ed doesn\u2019t have to be medically accurate and schools are required to stress abstinence. The Oklahoma State Department of Education does not track how many districts choose to teach sex education. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In many states that mandate sex education school boards have the final say on curriculum said <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.guttmacher.org\/about\/staff\/elizabeth-nash\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Elizabeth Nash<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, senior state issues manager at the Guttmacher Institute, which studies reproductive health. That leads to a patchwork of sex ed experiences, including none at all.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31171\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-31171 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0602-1920x1280.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0602-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0602-672x448.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0602-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0602-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0602-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0602-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0602-1620x1080.jpg 1620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0602.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jackie Fortier \/ StateImpact<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Laura Lang, CEO of Thrive looks over teen pregnancy statistics. The teen birth rate has dropped in the Oklahoma City metro area where Thrive concentrates its efforts to provide evidence-based sex education in targeted schools.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cJust anecdotally when we talk to people, most [adults] say their parents didn\u2019t talk to them about sex,\u201d said Laura Lang, CEO of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thriveokc.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thrive<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a collaboration of nonprofits that <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">provide targeted school districts age-appropriate sex education that includes information on contraceptive use and abstinence, with the goal of <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reducing teen pregnancy in Oklahoma County. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oklahoma has the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/pressroom\/sosmap\/teen-births\/teenbirths.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">third-highest teen pregnancy rate<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the nation.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhich means we have one of the highest teen birth rates in the developed world,\u201d she said. In the metro areas of Oklahoma City and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/tulsacampaign.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tulsa<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, comprehensive sex education is being taught in schools, Lang said, and the teen birth rate is dropping. She credits federal funding that has paid for the focused approach in metro schools. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBut in some rural communities, other districts may not have that same access to organizations that are trained and well equipped to provide those trainings,\u201d Lang said.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bills add training, not sex education <\/span><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two bills filed in the Oklahoma legislature could widen the optional curriculum surrounding teens and relationships \u2014 but retain crucial local control. <\/span><\/p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.oklegislature.gov\/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=Sb50&Session=1900\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senate Bill 50<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, introduced by Democratic <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.oksenate.gov\/Senators\/biographies\/young_bio.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">State Sen. George Young<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of Oklahoma City, would require school districts to host communication training to teach parents <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">medically accurate sex education so they can talk to their middle and high school students. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Young says the bill has a local control element since the training is optional for parents, and school districts would decide which curriculum to use.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31172\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-31172\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0600-1920x1293.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0600-1920x1293.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0600-672x453.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0600-768x517.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0600-150x101.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0600-300x202.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0600-620x418.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0600-1604x1080.jpg 1604w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/01\/IMG_0600.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jackie Fortier \/ StateImpact<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Sen. George Young is reintroducing a bill that he says will give parents the tools to talk to their kids about sexual health.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s really a no-cost kind of thing except time, and investment and encouraging parents in your community that this is important,\u201d Young said. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the House, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.okhouse.gov\/members\/District.aspx?District=46\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rep. Jacob Rosecrants<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> bill, nicknamed <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us\/cf_pdf\/2019-20%20INT\/hB\/HB1007%20INT.PDF\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lauren\u2019s Law<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, would require special training for teachers on consent and safe and healthy relationships. Rosecrants says it would be up to the school district how to teach the students the material. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe\u2019re going to add this idea of consent and healthy relationship to first of all the professional development part, and then so that schools can decide if they want to roll that out for themselves,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Versions of both bills were introduced during the 2018 legislative session and failed. Rosecrants says Lauren\u2019s Law still enjoys bipartisan support and thinks the turnover at the state Legislature will improve its chances. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey got elected on a platform of, \u2018I\u2019m a moderate,\u2019 he said. \u201cI see more hope.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even if lawmakers approve the legislation, the measures won\u2019t require comprehensive sex education in Oklahoma, which Rosecrants is quick to point out. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis bill isn\u2019t sex ed. Lauren\u2019s Law brings consent and healthy relationship education to our schools,\u201d Rosecrants said. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eight out of the 10 counties with the highest teen birth rates in Oklahoma were rural or mostly rural, like Dewey county where Kjelcea McDonald grew up. Now as a parent of three young children, she thinks state law should go further, and<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.guttmacher.org\/state-policy\/explore\/sex-and-hiv-education\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> join about a quarter of states<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that require schools to teach medically accurate information.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c[Parents] don\u2019t have all the medically accurate information, so to have somebody teach your kid that just knows what they are talking about, I am 100 percent behind that,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than five years after high school, McDonald still gets calls and texts from local teenagers who think they may be pregnant, asking for her advice. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf we can teach math and reading, it\u2019s important to teach us about our own bodies,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma has the third highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation and studies have shown that comprehensive sex education can help. Two bills filed in the state legislature could widen the optional curriculum without changing sex education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":31176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[1002,1017,1016],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31169"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31179,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31169\/revisions\/31179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}