Pennsylvania: City Says Data Show Need to Revamp Sex Education

On Tuesday, administrators for Pittsburgh Public Schools proposed that the district switch from an abstinence-only sex education policy to comprehensive sex education. The district's Board of Directors will be asked to vote on the proposal on Feb. 24.

Administration members on the board's Education Committee said the move would be toward an "abstinence-plus" curriculum, which would continue to stress abstinence as the only sure way to avoid pregnancy and STDs while including information about contraceptives. No contraceptives would be distributed, and the proper use of condoms would not be demonstrated in classes, administrators said.

The district, which has studied a curriculum change for almost a year, could fold the sex education courses into the planned new K-12 health curriculum. A parents' group had also asked for a comprehensive program.

In Pittsburgh, 14 percent of births last year were to mothers under age 20, compared to 8.3 percent in Allegheny County. Among local African Americans, 24 percent of births were to mothers under age 19.

Sex education instruction varies across the city from school to school, said officials. "Right now, our teachers are on their own," said board member Heather Arnet, who supports the proposal as a way of reasserting control over the content of sex education.

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