Middle school In New York City Starts New Sex Education Classes

For the first time in almost two decades NYC has added a required Sex Education class for all middle students into its curriculum, which has started a heated debate on whether or not this is appropriate material for such a young group of students. NYC Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott stated that they must be committed to educating the students on the risks of engaging in sexual behavior and making sure that they are made aware of this valuable information so that they know how to keep themselves safe before they decided to have sex.

Some of the topics in the new mandatory class will include the risk of unprotected sex and the appropriate age for sexual activity. One of the classes that are planned is the proper use for and how to use a condom.

The biggest critic of this new class is Ray Parascando, pastor of Crossroads Church he stated “There’s nothing wrong with learning about the human body, but when you start going into discourses on sexuality, I worry that we’re opening students up to other agendas.” However Walcott has made it known that parents will have the option to pull their students out of certain class topics, at their discretion. Walcott has also stated that most NCY students are engaging in sexual activities around the age of 13 and it is crucial that they are educated in how to property protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases.

Until this point the option of a Sex Education Class was up to the preference of the principle at each school however Walcott informed the principles that he feels it is their responsibility to make sure that the students have access to this information to help keep them healthy. Family Research Council senior fellow Peter Sprigg said “I think there’s a lot of virtue in allowing the local principals to make decisions based on the needs of their students,” and that it might be more affective to teach the students to abstain from sexual activity if they want to be healthy.

However Walcott sees this advancement of education as something that has been long overdue in the NYC community.