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Rhode Island Boots Abstinence-Only Sex Ed from Classrooms

by Jim Brown and Jody Brown
March 28, 2006

(AgapePress) - - Rhode Island has dumped a federal education program that encourages young people to abstain from sexual activity and other risky behaviors. The state's education officials are being accused of caving in to the demands of the ACLU.

The Rhode Island Department of Education has ordered public schools to no longer work with Heritage of Rhode Island and to stop using its federally funded sex-education program. The directive came after the Rhode Island American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) claimed curriculum from the abstinence-education provider "endorsed particular religious views ... invaded students' privacy rights" and "promoted sexist stereotypes."

In a press release about the Department's decision, the Rhode Island ACLU stated it was pleased with the state's response to "inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars to support discriminatory and religious teachings" in public schools. The ACLU chapter's executive director, Steven Brown, said that "students deserve facts, not sexism, in their sex-ed classes."

The program at issue is an abstinence-only-until-marriage curriculum called "Right Time, Right Place," which, according to Heritage, is a "character-based family-life and sexuality program" designed to work within a school's already existing curriculum. Chris Plante, executive director at Heritage, says state education officials sided with the ACLU without even formally reviewing the curriculum.

"There is not a religious bent to this program," Plante claims. "For us, and particularly because we work in Rhode Island where we know that the faith community sees the religious or the spiritual necessity of this type of program, we work hand-in-hand [with that community] producing a public health message here. But, unfortunately, perception is the reality these days."

This is not the first time Heritage and the ACLU have locked horns. Last year the ACLU protested a textbook once used by Heritage that taught students that girls should wear clothing that does not invite "lustful thoughts from boys." The book was also criticized for referring to men as "strong" and "courageous," and for calling women "caring." Plante maintains that instead of teaching young people they are responsible for their actions, the ACLU would rather wage a campaign against modesty and sexual purity.

"Politically, here in Rhode Island, those terms and things like that are considered gender-biased," acknowledges Plante. "Heritage of Rhode Island pulled that textbook simply because we wanted no obstacle between our message that abstinence from all forms of sexual activity as an adolescent is the healthiest choice an adolescent can make."

Plante says that last September, the ACLU began a concerted nationwide "attack" on abstinence-only-until-marriage education programs. That nationwide campaign, known as "Not in My State," involved ACLU affiliates in 18 states calling on local officials to keep what it calls "unsafe" abstinence-only-until-marriage programs out of public school classrooms, claiming they are "medically inaccurate and discriminatory."

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