Opt-in sex-ed bill gets House approval; moves on to Senate - East Idaho News
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Opt-in sex-ed bill gets House approval; moves on to Senate

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BOISE — A proposed “opt-in” sex-education bill is going on to the Senate with strong support from the House.

The bill, proposed by Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, would require parents to opt their children into any class with sexual content. The bill was approved by the Idaho House of Representatives Wednesday. The House passed the bill with all 56 House Republicans voting in favor of the bill, while all 14 Democrats opposed it.

HB 120 is about parental involvement in our children’s sexual content,” Ehardt said in the House Wednesday, according to the Idaho Statesman. “This bill is about consent, not about content.”

Ehardt’s bill gained attention after she went on a YouTube talk show to voice her concerns over a federally funding sex-education program called Reducing the Risk.

“As I went through the (Reducing the Risk teacher manual) — it is so disturbing what is being taught,” Ehardt told EastIdahoNews.com in a previous interview.

Ehardt said the program goes against Idaho’s sex-ed statutes and parental rights. She said Reducing the Risk normalizes sexual activity among young people, normalizes anal and oral sex, contains explicit details regarding condom use and fails to establish abstinence as the goal for minors.

Eastern Idaho Public Health Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program Coordinator Kaylene Craig defended the program in a previous interview saying she works with schools to decide what they want taught and do not want taught from the Reducing the Risk curriculum.

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“What we are talking about and learning is that abstinence is the best choice for a young person to protect them from pregnancy and STDs. And if they don’t choose that, then they need to do something to help protect themselves from pregnancy and STDs,” Craig said.

Idaho currently has an opt-out sex-education policy where parents and guardians can request to look at the curriculum being taught then decide whether or not to allow their student to participate in the lesson.

If passed, Ehardt’s bill would put the responsibility on teachers to collect opt-in forms from parents and guardians.

The opt-in requirement wouldn’t be specific to sex-education classes. It would also include any class, such as a literature class, that has some form of sexual content in its curriculum.

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