Pennsylvania county will stop teaching safer sex in schools

Public school officials in west Allegheny County in Pennsylvania, home to suburbs of Pittsburgh, have revamped the sex education curriculum for the counties schools to remove all references to condom use in preventing HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, instead focusing solely on abstinence, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. The new curriculum also does not include information about condoms, oral contraceptives, or any other methods of preventing pregnancy. The previous curriculum, developed in the late 1980s, focused heavily on HIV prevention. But despite a lack of evidence that the old curriculum was leading to increased sexual activity among county youths, district director of education services Charles Fazekas said the curriculum "needed to be updated." A committee of parents and teachers, alarmed at reports of rising STD rates among young people nationwide, decided the best approach was to teach abstinence only. Committee member Pam Perry said she supports the revamped curriculum because she says no one should have sex until they are married. "That's what's taught in the Bible," she told the newspaper.