The Questions should be asked.... when they are young and often as they grow

I was in the car today at about 11:00am listening to Doug Wright on KSL.  He brought this story up on his talk radio program and the engaged in an hour worth of faux outrage:

Sex Survey at D.C. School Sparks Controversy

A Washington, D.C., middle school is under fire after distributing a survey to seventh-graders asking both boys and girls about their sexual orientations and whether they knew how to put on a condom, among other sex-based questions.

The survey, developed by Metro TeenAIDS, a group dedicated to helping young people fight against HIV/AIDS, was intended to raise awareness of sexually transmitted diseases and teach the children how to avoid them,

I read the survey that is linked to the article.  It is a little but direct it uses medical terms that Doug would not repeat on the air ie. oral, vaginal, or anal sex.  It asked the kids if they knew how to get condoms and if they knew how to put one on themselves or their partners.  I did not see anything in the article that my children who live in a nice middle class conservative suburban neighborhood didn't already have some knowledge about.   This survey was given to 7th graders.  Some kids where as young as 11.  I didn't get the outrage because these were similar to the questions my LDS Bishop asked when I was 12.  The same Bishop that asked theses questions of my sister when she was 11 and who described the act of masturbation to my younger sister when she was 12.

There was a minor screw up.... they forgot to send the opt out letter home the day before the test.

Okay that was a screw up but there is a reality, to quote a line from the movie Fame "The kids in my neighborhood are into sex much earlier.... about 6am."  There is a reality that inner city neighborhood children are exposed to sex much earlier in their lives.  There is something about growing up poor in a neighborhood without parental supervision, where drug abuse is high and education is low that causes that dynamic.  I knew a young woman who grew up in inner city Chicago.  She reported she had consensual sex for the first time when she was 8.

So caller after caller called and expressed their outrage and many said this discussion belongs in the home.  But the comment that floored me was the one who said this conversation belonged in the home and maybe with their religious leader ( in Utah that translates to "the Bishop") but this conversation should not have occurred in a health class, with a trained health teacher, because the school is 16 times more likely to have students engage in risk behavior.  REALLY? a Bishop is more qualified to ask theses questions than trained aids workers?

The reason we need comprehensive sex education in this state and early is because we are at risk of having stats similar to Washington DC.  Conservatives like to tell us there is consequences to behavior.... when your child is dying of aids that was preventable not only are they responsible but so are you for denying them information that could have saved their lives.  Instead we opt to pretend that a parent with no formal training has any real expertise to teach the child and that they will.  Once they have the disease all the prayers, blessings, or voodoo will do nothing to save them.