New at Say Anything: No Sex Please, We're North Dakotans

There's a bill before the North Dakota House that would mandate abstinence-only education in the state's public schools.

I imagine that most people would agree with at least some of the concepts outlined in this bill (North Dakota H.B. 1229). Others, not so much. I'm not particulary interested in hashing out which ones are good or bad, true or false, appropriate or not. That's because while I personally may agree with some of these and disagree with others, I don't think this is an area public schools should be concerning themselves with. I'm a firm believer that it is the purview of parents to take the lead in dicussing sex with their kids, in whatever form that conversation may take and whatever approach those parents may prefer. As someone whose own parents never had "the talk" I understand one major argument in favor of this sort of program. If the parents won't do it, it's up to the school. Except that it's not, anymore than a parent who doesn't buy their kid new shoes means it's up to the school to do it.

(Read the rest of this post, as well as the bill, at Say Anything.)