Delta County conservatives are in a tizzy over the prospect that their school district may implement a medically-accurate, comprehensive sex education curriculum in compliance with a new Colorado law passed in 2019.
Until recently, the Delta County Schools’ only consistent “sex education” curriculum consisted of presentations by a woman named Shelly Donahue, a Christian abstinence-only speaker whose talk relied heavily on shame, guilt and medically-inaccurate information. Donahue likened girls brains to cooked spaghetti and boys brains to toaster waffles. The slides in her show were sprinkled with crosses, and she told kids that having premarital sex put them “further from God.” Donahue’s $2,000 speaking fee was picked up by a Christian missionary group. One Oklahoma school district has banned Donahue from speaking because students said her talks were demeaning to girls and children from broken homes. (For more on Shelly Donahue and the Delta County School District, search on “Shelly Donahue” in the AnneLandmanblog search box on right side of any page.)
A state law passed in 2019 requires schools to implement medically-accurate sex ed if they teach health
The Delta County School District got away with these shenanigans for a long time, but HB19-1032 (pdf), a bill signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis on May 31, 2019, bans abstinence-only sex ed curriculi and now requires all public schools in Colorado that teach health to teach a comprehensive, medically-accurate sex education curriculum that discusses methods of preventing unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS, information on all FDA-approved methods of contraception including condoms, and how to recognize and communicate consent and withdrawal of consent for sex, among many other important topics.
But Delta County conservatives would rather keep their kids in the dark about this information.
Groups including the Delta County Republic Party and the First Baptist Church of Delta are rallying people to attend school board meetings to speak out against teaching kids medically-accurate sex ed.
One person, Shane Kier, a former sheriff turned pastor, even said he would have to pull his kids out of school if the District started teaching kids factual comprehensive sex ed.
Delta County message boards on social media are rife with opposition with people in Delta calling such factual information “obscene” and “vile.”
But groups are also supporting teaching medically-accurate sex ed in Delta County Schools, and are asking for support
But while some in Delta are opposing any change in the status quo, medical professionals, gay groups and allies, concerned parents and others are rallying in support of an accurate, comprehensive sex ed curriculum finally being taught in Delta County schools.
To that end, a Pride Parade is scheduled in Delta County on May 20th at 5:15 p.m. at the Delta County School Board meeting at 145 West 4th Street in Delta to support high quality education in Delta County Schools that includes comprehensive, fact-based sex education. The organizers welcome all doctors, nurses, counselors, social workers, parents, health educators and others who can speak in support of the benefits of finally bringing comprehensive sex ed to Delta County schools.