Young people and STDs are a pairing as old as time itself, though, you probably wouldn’t expect such issues to affect high school teenagers. Sadly, that is exactly what is occurring at tiny Crane High School in Texas. The students at Crane are experiencing an epic outbreak of chlamydia, with nearly seven percent of kids infected, according to Raw Story:
Officials from the Crane Independent School District confirmed to KWES that the state health department was sending a letter to Crane High School parents informing that at least 20 cases had been reported. The school has an enrollment of about 300 students.
While this outbreak is certainly an unpleasant surprise to both kids and parents alike, the reason it occurred wasn’t much of a shock. Currently, Crane High School offers NO CLASSES IN SEXUAL EDUCATION:
According to the Crane Independent School District Student Handbook for 2014-2015, the district “does not offer a curriculum in human sexuality.” In 2012, the district’s School Health Advisory Committee had recommended Scott & White’s “Worth the Wait” Abstinence Plus curriculum if a sexual education policy was adopted.
In Texas schools lucky enough to receive sexual education courses, state law requires abstinence until marriage to be taught as the main component of the overall sex-ed curriculum. Something tells me this won’t be a popular approach in educating horny-ass teenagers about safe sex.
Crane High School does have a pitiful 3-day sex-ed course that runs in its fall semester. It doesn’t take expert detective skills, though, to figure out this all-too-brief class didn’t have much of an impact on the student body.