Fifth Graders in D.C. to Take Nation’s First Standardized Sex Test
Students as young as 10-years-old will partake in the nation’s first standardized sex education test beginning next spring in Washington, D.C. The test aims to measure their proficiency in sex and health.
The District of Columbia has the nation's highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy. Test results will help school officials determine what students know about risky behavior, according to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.
Fifty questions, testing knowledge about contraceptives, drug use, and sex, will be administered to fifth, eighth, and tenth grade students, and the resulting scores will be sent to schools, not teachers or students.
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Officials believe that these tests will help them see whether or not schools are doing a good job of providing health education to students.
The test is undoubtedly raising some concerns amongst the conservative, who believe it’s the parent’s right to educate his or her child first about sex.
“Students are being exposed to this kind of material, not on their parents’ schedule, but on the schools’ schedule,” Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council (FRC) told OneNewsNow, “and I think that’s what it really boils down to.”
His concern is that the test may introduce material that a parent has yet to speak about with their children.
“These are such sensitive topics, the principal sex educator should be a child’s parent and not the public school,” said Sprigg.
Last year, a sex test administered to seventh graders at Harvey Middle School in D.C. caused an uproar among parents who complained of not being informed of the test beforehand.
Questions like, how sure are you that you “can you name all four body fluids that can transmit HIV?” and “know the difference between oral, vaginal, and anal sex?” were included in the controversial test given by Metro TeenAids, who sought to assess students’ knowledge of sexual behavior in order to provide them with necessary information and skills to protect themselves.
A letter of apology was offered to parents by Adam Tenner, the executive director of the organization, who stated, “We regret that the opt-out forms did not go out before the first day of class.”
Tenner added, “Metro TeenAIDS supports a parent’s right to ‘opt-out’ of the reproductive health classes offered in schools... However, Washington DC is currently the HIV/Aids capital of the US and it is our mission to employ the best science and curricula to help create an ‘HIV Free Generation.’”
Though the standardized test will not be nearly as graphic as the one offered by Metro TeenAIDS, parents and educators are still worried about the potential outcome.
“Bringing it to the level of actually having standardized testing means that not only will students be given this kind of liberal propaganda of the sexual revolution, but they will be expected to successfully regurgitate it to their teachers,” said Sprigg.
To Sprigg, teaching abstinence was always the safest and surest way to prevent pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
A study conducted previously by the University of Pennsylvania corroborated Spriggs' belief. Published by the American Medical Association, the study, which followed 662 students in Philadelphia, found that abstinence education was the most effective method in reducing sexual activity among youth.
Middle school students who attended abstinence-only classes were less likely to become sexually active than their peers who attended classes teaching condom use only or even a combination of condom use and abstinence.
Within two years of attending the abstinence-only class, only a third of those students reported having sexual intercourse, whereas more than half of those who attended classes teaching condom use already engaged in intercourse.
“Condoms don’t protect the heart and aren’t 100 percent protection against many sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. The only 100 percent effective way to protect one’s body and heart is abstinence until marriage,” Leslee Unruh, founder of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse, explained to The Christian Post previously.
