For another year, STI Infection rates were on the rise in Washington state and around the country- the highest rates ever recorded, with teens and young adults being the group with the highest infection rates. https://www.doh.wa.gov/.../2019N.../19110STDRatesNewsRelease
King County, where Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) has been taught for years via the FLASH curriculum, was not immune to this STI epidemic increase, despite claims that CSE reduces risk. https://www.kingcounty.gov/.../2017-STD-Epidemiology... https://publichealthinsider.com/.../more-syphilis.../
Interestingly, this correlates with the CDC's 2019 "Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Report" which found that condom use among teens drops from 44.3% to 9.1% when the girl is on a long term birth control option, such as the pill or the ring. (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/su/pdfs/su6901-H.pdf pg 15)
One could easily surmise that the long term birth control seems to lull teens into a false sense of security and pregnancy appears to be the main focus of prevention.
So, how do proponents of CSE react to this troubling trend of increasing STD infection rates among young people? By shifting the conversation around STI's from one of stigma (avoidance) to one that trivializes and normalizes them. Even changing the name from the former STD ('D' being for disease which sounds much too serious) to the newer STI ('I'for Infection which sounds curable).
CSE is not working to reduce STD infection rates, in fact, pushing access to long-term birth control seems to be placing teens at greater risk. And the people who make money off the of the treatment of STD infections: write CSE curriculums; support legislation the pushes the CSE method into schools; and are in the schools themselves teaching CSE and training teachers. And no one sees anything wrong with this?
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