SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – A Utah lawmaker wants to give parents the tools they need to teach sex education at home even though sex ed programs have a permanent place in schools.
Sen. Stuart Reid, R-Ogden, said parents are often uncomfortable having the birds and bees conversation. “Most parents don’t feel comfortable doing it in their home because they’re just not sure how best to approach it,” he said.
Reid is sponsoring a bill that would require the state school board to develop a sex education program for parents. A state education committee discussed the idea during a hearing Wednesday.
“They can go and have a face to face training with a trainer teaching them how to train their children in human sexuality and they can do it based on what their values are, said Reid. “Or, they can do it at home where they can pull up a program online that can help them teach their children.”
The idea comes after last year’s heated debate and veto of HB363 that would have scaled back sex education in Utah schools. Reid said his proposal wouldn’t change school programs.
Supporters of HB363 are already weighing in. Gayle Ruzicka of the conservative group Eagle Forum tells ABC 4 she’d support any proposal that puts the responsibility in parents’ hands.
“For a lot of us teaching these kinds of things is a very sacred thing and when you try to teach it in a group setting or a classroom it doesn’t work very well,” she said.
