Minnesota lawmakers may mandate sex education in schools
An increase in the number of Minnesota teens having sex has prompted state legislators to push for a statewide mandate for sex education in public schools.
The latest survey of school kids by the education department found that for the first time in more than a decade, more kids say they're having sex. And more of them are engaging in sex without birth control.
"Teachers are getting more afraid, or at least unsure, of what they can and cannot teach, and some of the most contentious topics, like homosexuality, how to use a condom, are not being taught much at all," Lynn Bretl, a University of Minnesota epidemiologist, told Minnesota Public Radio. "Because a lot of the abstinence-only rhetoric at the federal level, it's really making people unsure of what they can teach," she says.
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