CFISD needs a "Sexual Risk Avoidance" or SRA Sex-Ed Curriculum instead of "Comprehensive Sex Ed" or CSE. An SRA: • Teaches that abstaining from sexual activity has social, physiological, and health gains • Teaches that sex outside of marriage has harmful psychological and physical consequences and that abstinence is the expected standard of sexual activity • May discuss condoms or other birth control. If it does, it is usually with an emphasis on failure rates; however, in order to be funded federally, the program must provide medically accurate and balanced information. • May or may not include topics such as abortion and sexual orientation • Teaches communication skills so that teens can keep from being pressured into sex • Explains the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before engaging in sexual activity --Abstinence programs help students avoid the emotional damage of sex. Comprehensive sex-ed often ignores abstinence as an option. "Conventional 'safe sex' programs (sometimes erroneously called 'abstinence plus' programs) place little or no emphasis on encouraging young people to abstain from early sexual activity. Instead, such programs strongly promote condom use and implicitly condone sexual activity among teens. Nearly all such programs contain material and messages that would be alarming and offensive to the overwhelming majority of parents." * --Many CSE programs actually encourage students to have sex. "Many of these programs also implicitly encourage sexual activity among the youths they teach. Guidelines developed by SEICUS, for example, include teaching children aged five through eight about masturbation and teaching youths aged 9 through 12 about alternative sexual activities such as mutual masturbation, 'outercourse,' and oral sex. In addition, the SEICUS guidelines suggest informing youths aged 16 through 18 that sexual activity can include bathing or showering together as well as oral, vaginal, or anal intercourse, and that they can use erotic photographs, movies, or literature to enhance their sexual fantasies when alone or with a partner. Not only do such activities carry their own risks for youth, but they are also likely to increase the incidence of sexual intercourse." Htge 2002-04-08 --An abstinence message responds correctly to the epidemic of STDs. "Abstinence education is a public health strategy focused on risk avoidance that aims to help young people avoid exposure to harm. These programs have been shown to effectively reduce the risks of out-of-wedlock pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases by teaching teenagers that saving sex for marriage and remaining faithful afterward is the best choice for health and happiness." Congressman Lee Terry 21 Jun 2007 --Condoms are not very protective against STDs and many fail. Significantly, research shows that condom use offers relatively little protection (from "zero" to "some") for herpes and no protection from the deadly HPV. A review of the scientific literature reveals that, on average, condoms failed to prevent the transmission of the HIV virus--which causes the immune deficiency syndrome known as AIDS--between 15 percent and 31 percent of the time. It should not be surprising, therefore, that while condom use has increased over the past 25 years, the spread of STDs has likewise continued to rise." --Abstinence programs effectively reduces rates of teen sex and pregnancy "Since 1991, when federal abstinence funding began, births to 15- to 17-year-olds have dropped 43 percent despite a 25 percent increase in that age group. In 1991, 54 percent of teens said they had had sex, compared to 47 percent in 2003. Further evidence that abstinence education works can be found in a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, which concluded that both abstinence and contraception contributed to the decline in teen pregnancy rates between 1991 and 2001. The study attributes the majority of the decline in teen pregnancy rates (53 percent) among 15- to 17-year-olds to abstinence and 47 percent to contraceptive use." Life Way Christian Resources on Opposing Views. A 2012 Congressional report also showed that SRA's are the way to go. http://energycommerce.house.gov/sites/republicans.energycommerce.house.gov/files/analysis/20120706riskavoidance.pdf Sign the petition and send the message to the LSHAC, CFISD Board and Superintendent Mark Henry that parents in Cy-Fair want a sexual risk avoidance program for our students!

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