Lawmaker: Couple Abstinence Message With More Details

WFSU | By Jim Ash

Published December 23, 2015 at 7:19 AM EST

Abstinence is the only guaranteed protection against pregnancy and STDs, but teens don't always get the message, says a South Florida Democrat who wants schools to offer more detailed sex education.

It’s time to rethink how adolescents learn about the facts of life, according to a Democratic lawmaker who is also a teacher.

Experts say Florida has the fourth-highest number of syphilis cases in the country, and nationwide, two out of every three victims of sexually transmitted diseases are younger than 25.

Senator Dwight Bullard of Miami says that’s why limiting sex education to abstinence only doesn’t work.

“It kind of supersedes the reality of being a teen-ager, and being a high school teacher, I understand all too well that hormones are raging at those ages.”

Bullard’s bill calls for, “age appropriate,” and “scientifically proven,” material. Bullard anticipates some parents raising concerns .

“You know parents naturally may have, may take issue with it, but again, the school districts would have the flexibility to allow those parents to sign their students out if they thought it wasn’t necessary.”

The bill would also repeal a portion of state law that requires teaching the, “benefits of heterosexual marriage.”