Letter: Approach to sex education hurts community

Friday, Dec. 3, 2004 | 9:22 a.m.

This is in response to your Nov. 30 story by Molly Ball, headlined "School cuts sex aspect from awareness project." The story was about a local high school observing World AIDS Day. But because of the Clark County School District's conservative policy on sex education, the students couldn't be taught how AIDS is spread or how they could protect themselves.

We know that Nevada's teens are having sex. Pretending this problem doesn't exist is such backward thinking. How could a school observe World AIDS Day and not include discussions about how the disease is transmitted?

A huge number of Nevada's teens are doing drugs, drinking and having sex. Teen pregnancy here is alarming, and our prenatal care is the worst in the nation. In a town where you see bare butts on billboards, it's hard to believe we're still dealing with horse-and-buggy thinking when it comes to sex.

Like it or not, parents, your teens are having sex and might get AIDS. Not teaching sex education in schools is absurd. For all the parents who do not wish this, please send your child to a private school that guarantees no sex-education classes. For the rest of us taxpayers who must pay the burden of babies having babies, I say let's open our eyes and minds and talk frankly about a serious subject before it's too late.

DONNA COLEMAN Editor's note: Donna Coleman, a former member of the State Board of Education, is president of The Children's Advocacy Alliance, which publishes the biennial "Report Card on Nevada's Children."