AFY_Joe
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Georgia has been mired over the past decade with rising teen birth rates, and considering the type of sex education that students are receiving, it's really no surprise.
Georgia ranks 10th highest in the national in the teen birth rate, as 54 of every 1,000 teens gives birth, 12 more than the national average. Meanwhile, Georgia has received $64 million in abstinence-only until marriage sex education funding, with a whopping $12 million in 2008 alone.
But youth in Georgia are starting to organize and fight back. Three of Advocates for Youth's Youth Activist Network are featured in the RH Reality Check video below, Erica Green, Brian Allen and Christal Walker. They are working to end these ridiculous programs that they have seen harming their peers first-hand by working with their organization, G-CAPP State Youth Leadership Council.
A Battle for Comprehensive Sex Education in Savannah, GA from Stuart Productions on Vimeo.
But there is great news out of the Clarke County School District, as they changed their sex ed policy from abstinence only to comprehensive sex education in January of 2008. For the past year, G-CAPP has been providing them technical assistance in helping them select their curriculum. Last week, the board of education approved the curriculum selection 8-1, and there were zero opposing comments in the weeklong public forum. G-CAPP will begin training their teachers on Monday, and will start implementing their programs in August of 2009.
And a note to remember: President Obama is currently drafting his budget for the 2010 fiscal year, and we all need to remind him to ZERO OUT fudning for abstinence-only until marriage sex education programs. Be sure to send him this message ASAP!
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