To this parent of two teenagers, this old-fashioned type of censorship demonstrates the evils of suppressing speech and ideas it causes real harm by withholding knowledge that everyone needs to make informed and responsible decisions and to live safe, fulfilling lives. A provision in the 1996 welfare law provides funding to teach students that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity. It s no surprise that more than half of the schools in a recent poll reported that sex education doesn t cover condom use, abortion, or sexual orientation. Teachers who respond truthfully to students inquiries have been threatened with discipline, and many are understandably reluctant to talk about sexuality at all. A recent study reveals that parents overwhelmingly support comprehensive sex education in school, even if they promote abstinence at home.
Many young people evidence a shocking lack of knowledge of human sexuality.
One teenage boy asked a teacher where his cervix was, and a girl asked if oral sex could cause pregnancy. Comprehensive sex education that includes, but isn t limited to abstinence, doesn t encourage sexual activity, but provides the information necessary for safe and responsible decision-making. Free expression advocates can t afford to ignore this form of censorship any more than they can afford to remain silent when Blubber, Huck Finn, or The Color Purple is removed from the curriculum. Next they ll be razoring the pictures out of biology texts. Permission is expressly granted for the information obtained to be made available for file transfer from installations offering unrestricted anonymous file transfer on the Internet.