On Oct. 1, Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 329, which mandates sexual education reform for seventh through twelfth graders for all California public school students. This new sex-ed is going to include full coverage sexual health education and HIV prevention information. The reforms will be implemented in January 2016.
The law is also going to change the textbooks, instructions, and materials that are used for sexual education. Students statewide now have to take sexual education at least once between grades seven and eight and once more between grades nine and 12. And with Assembly Bill 329, parents and guardians still maintain the right to exclude their child or children from the new sexual education courses, but students can no longer excuse themselves on their own.
Health teacher Barbara Beaumont says, “The purpose of [these changes] is to understand that sexuality is a normal part of human development, so they have the skills necessary to make their own healthy decisions.”
Senate Bill 695 also introduces a new standard form of consent for California high schools and colleges. The new standard coined “yes means yes” means the absence of refusal is not consent, just because someone does not say no does not mean yes.
This new standard of emphasizing the importance of consent in classrooms hopes to change the morals of current generations and prevent cases of date rape, where offenders might interpret the absence of disapproval as consent. Aragon junior Shaye Kenny says, “I think that it’s smart because it’s like a lot of people are mistaking ‘hmm’, or ‘I don’t know’ for ‘okay that means yes.’I think it’s better because it makes everything more clear.” Also with the passage of SB 695, signed on Oct. 1, coursework on sexual assault and violence is going to be a graduation requirement.
Regarding the impact to Aragon’s health curriculum, athletics director and health teacher Steve Sell says,“Not much. We’ve always been extremely progressive and upfront of what is taught and we have not shied away from teaching sex and discussing gender and other issues.”
Beaumont agrees, saying, “It won’t change our program much, we already teach the required information. We have the resources regarding pregnancy options, but we need to make sure students have the understanding and reliable information regarding their options.”
However, this bill will require Aragon to add new curriculum. Beaumont adds, “We need to add information regarding sex trafficking, which is now in the CA Sex Ed Code.”
Every public school in California will teach sex-ed at a certain statewide standard. However, other schools in California may face drastic changes in their health curriculum, especially in more conservative regions where sex-ed has been denounced.
Sell says, “There’s parts of the state where it will cause a great deal of change, there’s parts of the state that are very conservative, you know, you go into the central valley, Fresno, Bakersfield and not to generalize, but those guys got a very midwest or southern sort of mentality, very conservative. [Some people] still live under the fantasy that if they don’t talk about sex with their kids, then their kids won’t have sex.”
The addition of these sexual health classes aim to include information on how to form healthy relationships and focus on HIV/AIDS prevention. According to the San Francisco Aids Foundation, 119,878 Californias currently live with HIV.
To prevent thses diseases from spreading further, Californians must educate future, sexually active generations. Beaumont adds, “Most kids don’t know how common [STD’s] are, and that most of them can be treated.”
Sell concludes, “We are fortunate to live in a very educated, progressive area where we can teach these things.”
