The Capitol Building is seen on the night of Monday, Jan. 8, 2018 in Olympia.
If you are a student in Yakima County, you are likely receiving education about safe sex, abstinence, pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections in school, though you might be getting more or less information depending on which district you attend.
A popular curriculum developed by King County Public Health, FLASH, serves as the basis for the majority of these school health classes -- including those in Grandview, Highland, Naches Valley, Selah, Union Gap, Wapato and Yakima school districts.
But districts teach sex ed by choice, and they are not required to report to the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction if they do. This means the closest thing the state has to a central record of what, if anything, students are being taught from one district to the next is the optional School Health Profiles Survey. Only four schools who volunteered information about their program said they were teaching every topic outlined by the state in the subject.
A state Senate bill requested by OSPI could change that, making it mandatory for all districts to teach sex ed in line with state guidelines for kindergarten through grade 12.
SB 5395, which passed the Senate and is pending in the House, would allow parents to review materials upon request and withdraw their children from individual lessons or the entire curriculum, if desired.
"Instead of entire school districts deciding whether or not to provide sexual health education, the decision is left up to individual parents and guardians," OSPI spokeswoman Katy Payne said of the bill.
Within the Yakima Valley, the proposal has drawn both praise and scorn.
Some community members laud the move to ensure all students have access to consistent sex ed. Others are opposed to some of the state guidelines, or think the local community or parents should decide what curriculum is taught and at what age.
What would change?
Schools don't have to teach sexual education. For those that do, the curriculum must align with state guidelines outlined in the 2007 Healthy Youth Act .
Schools that teach sex ed cannot solely teach about abstinence, for one thing. Contraceptives and methods for disease prevention must also be shared with students. All instructions and materials must also follow a set of rules: They must be medically and scientifically accurate; appropriate regardless of disability, race, gender or sexual orientation; age appropriate; and they must align with disease prevention guidelines outlined by OSPI and the Department of Health in 2005.
"In other words, the instruction must be comprehensive," the OSPI website says.
In 2018, 14 secondary schools across 10 of the 15 districts in Yakima County provided information on their sex ed offerings to the OSPI for the School Health Profiles Survey. About half reported having a policy in place that reflects the Healthy Youth Act, Payne said.
"I think it's safe to say that about half are teaching what I would call comprehensive sexual health education -- not every topic, but a good array of components," she said. "Over half of them report having reviewed their curricula for medical accuracy and for consistency with the 2005 guidelines."
Paul Dillon, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho, said the bill would simply create a "Healthier Youth Act."
Under the bill, districts would no longer have the option not to teach sex ed, and age-appropriate topics would be introduced from K-12, instilling at early ages lessons like respect for boundaries. Districts could choose from curricula pre-approved by OSPI, or develop their own with OSPI's support.
According to state guidelines, kindergartners would learn that boys and girls have different body parts, that living things grow and mature, that there are many ways to express gender and how to identify the characteristics of a friend.
By graduation, students would learn about abstinence, safe-sex methods and sexually transmitted infections, as well as how to identify healthy relationships; signs of sexual violence; and affirmative consent, rather than the common "no means no" approach.
According to Dillon, this would help close a lot of gaps in the current system.
"In Yakima Valley, there's a lot of inconsistency. (As a result) we've seen the high teen pregnancy rates, high STI rates, (and) I think that there is a lack of LGBTQ curriculum throughout the schools," he said. "A lot of it really comes down to school districts, school boards, deciding, 'Well, we don't like this. We're not going to do it."
"We hear all the time students getting to college and thinking they might not get pregnant by jumping up and down after sex -- just really embarrassing stories," Dillon added. "So what this bill does is try to create a more universal approach."
Kevin Chase, superintendent of Educational Service District 105, a regional school district that includes Yakima County, said the change would have minimal impact.
"I don't know that the new legislation is that much different than what was required in the past," he said. "I just think they're trying to emphasize that there needs to be a balance to teaching sexual health."
"That's one of the most important subjects you can help kids learn, because I think in some family structures it's taboo to talk about these things, and then you have students that aren't educated," said Chase. "There are all kinds of issues that can happen if students don't understand what's going on with sex health."
STIs
Roughly two thirds of respondents to a Yakima Herald-Republic poll said they were in favor of the legislation as of Friday, and many community members posted to Facebook voicing their hope that it could quell the pregnancy and STI epidemic in the valley.
In 2016, Yakima County had the highest rate of teen pregnancy out of any county statewide -- 54.9 per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19. The rate was more than double the state average of 24.4 per 1,000, according to the Department of Health.
The county also had 600 more cases of chlamydia per 100,000 teens age 15-19 than the state average in 2017, and 247 cases of gonorrhea per 100,000 population of teens compared to 208 per 100,000 statewide. In 2017, the county as a whole had the sixth highest rate of each STI statewide, and in 2016 had the highest rate of gonorrhea in all of Washington.
Experts say STI and teen pregnancy rates diminish when comprehensive sex ed is taught.
Shaylyn Wilburn, a health instructor at Eisenhower High School in the Yakima School District, said students really tune into the STI conversations in her courses.
"They are just kind of in awe about the whole STD/STI epidemic that (is) happening and protecting themselves," she said. When students hear Yakima's high rank in STI rates in the state, "students' eyeballs get big and they're like, 'what?'"
Wilburn said she's in favor of the bill because she worries students won't learn that they have options in their sexual health if schools don't provide comprehensive sex ed.
"The reason I like comprehensive (sex ed) is because you get the pros and cons, and students are able to make an educated choice," she said. "We're definitely not teaching students to go out and be sexually active -- their value system comes from their home ... But knowledge is power."
Anna Ergeson, a 16-year-old student at Selah High School, has met with legislators in the 15th District to ask them to vote in favor of the bill.
Two years ago, Ergeson took her first comprehensive sex ed course. She said students were required to take coursework home and have discussions with parents and then bring it back to class. At first, those topics were hard to broach. But she said the curriculum helped create a communication line between her and her peers, and their parents. Seeking input about sexual health from parents became normalized, she said.
This built a healthier perspective of the topic, she said, and helped to both dispel myths and equip her with knowledge to keep herself healthy.
"That's really important because our rates are insane," she said of the valley's STI and teen pregnancy record.
Since her sex ed course, Ergeson has become one of four members of the local Teen Council group, a peer-led sex ed program by Planned Parenthood focused on developing safe environments for students to talk about sexual health and relationships, and even get anonymous questions answered. If the basics of sexual health -- like body autonomy and building healthy relationships -- were taught from early on, students might be better equipped to take care of their health, she said.
"It (would be) really good to have to talk about those things at a younger age because then when they become more important, you're better prepared to have the (tougher) conversations."
Kindergarten question
Some Yakima Valley residents are concerned that the bill would require schools to teach kids about sex before they're ready for it.
"Though this mandate would allow districts to decide what curriculum to use, they still have to teach kids as young as 5 sex ed the state decided was 'age appropriate,'" said Dede Hill, a mother of four students in grades eight through 12 who have gone through the Sunnyside School District. "Our young ones should be taught ABCs and 123s, not about sexuality."
Hill said her kids began learning about puberty in grade five before going onto learn about things like STIs in higher grades.
"With the current basic sex ed, the community had a say in what was taught and to what extent," she said. "Our voices were heard then, but now the people have been silenced.
"Districts and communities need to continue to decide what forms of sex ed is taught in our schools without the state dictating what our children need to know about sex and what's deemed appropriate for them."
If the bill makes it to a House vote, Rep. Jeremie Dufault, R-Selah , said he intends to vote against it.
"It starts teaching sex ed in kindergarten, and for that reason alone, I'm strongly opposed to it," he said, adding that lessons in inappropriate touching are something parents could choose to teach their kids.
The kindergarten curriculum is less intimidating than it might initially sound, said Payne of OSPI.
"We understand why 'sexual health education' sounds scary when we're talking about kindergartners. But in the early grades, it really is all about healthy relationships, friendships and emotions," she said.
Kids will practice saying yes or no and ask for permission before giving a high-five or hug, she said.
"This builds the foundation of knowledge about affirmative consent that becomes more important as the students age," Payne said. "In the early grades, students also learn and identify healthy ways of expressing their feelings, and recognizing healthy ways for family members or friends to express feelings to each other."
The label of sex ed is a significant part of what upsets many community members, said Brenda Rolfs, a retired teacher who previously worked in Grandview classrooms. While she agrees with teaching kindergartners basic boundaries including inappropriate touch, categorizing it as sex ed and including gender identity discussions make it a no-go for her, she said.
"Most of the opposition regarding this new legislation comes from the word (sex ed) or issue of gender discussion at the K-5 level, but especially at the kinder level," Rolfs said.
"We are not OK about (that)," she said. "Of course, there are extremes on both ends of all or nothing, but I think the problem lies with the terminology and the feeling that gender discussions or education are best left to the higher grades."
Controversial topics?
Last year, the Grandview school board proposed switching sex ed curriculums. Instead of the combination of The Great Body Shop, FLASH and KNOW -- an HIV and STI curriculum developed by OSPI -- the board was considering rolling out Get Real, a comprehensive sex ed curriculum by Planned Parenthood. But the proposal was met with wide opposition from parents and community members. The board eventually dropped the plans and instead began developing a new curriculum, yet to be solidified.
Wes Hershberger, a pastor at Grandview Nazarene Church who has been heavily involved in curriculum development discussions, is in favor of sex education, but was among those opposed to the curriculum change. He's also opposed to the state mandating detailed requirements of curriculum.
"I like the state mandating something and then leaving that in the hands of the local school board," he said. "I believe the local school board knows best how to educate the students in their community."
The strong religious roots of the Grandview community would inform a sex ed curriculum that emphasized abstinence more than Get Real does; that stressed the potential impact of STIs; and that was light or absent of gender identity and sexual orientation discussion, he said.
"I just want it to be a balanced representation of the community at large," he said. "By that community, I mean the community it resides in. So a community over on the West Side is going to be a little bit different than a community, say for example, right here in the Valley."
For Ergeson, the 11th grader from Selah, there's no question about Yakima's need for this bill, which she emphasized allows families to opt out of coursework as they see fit.
"This bill is more important here than it is in any other parts of the state," Ergeson said, pointing to the county's pregnancy and STI rates. "I know that this is a conservative town, and I don't think they understand the importance (of comprehensive sex ed) -- and the risk of not having it."
