A bill that would require an addition to the state’s “family life” curriculum in public schools has been sent to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk. It requires students to watch a three-minute video and suggests one made by the anti-abortion group Live Action called “Baby Olivia.” The animated clip contains some inaccuracies about the timeline of the fetal development process.
Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood), who sponsored the bill, called it one of the most important pieces of legislation of the session, while the admission of what many advocates call anti-abortion propaganda into schools sparked outrage.
But Tennessee’s family life curriculum is far from comprehensive. A Nashville Scene review of the materials used by Metro Nashville Public Schools showed education about aspects of birth control and emergency contraception exist, but are cut out.
According to the latest CDC data, Tennessee has the seventh-highest teen birth rate in the country.
Family life curriculum is required at some point in a student’s high school career. The Tennessee State Board of Education and the Tennessee Department of Education establish the academic standards in accordance with state law, while local education agencies (in this case, MNPS) adopt the curriculum — tasked with taking into account community values. Tennessee law was changed last year to require parents to opt in to the family life lessons; previously, they were required to opt out.
To comply with Tennessee law, the curriculum must be abstinence-based. The law states that curriculum must “emphatically promote only sexual risk avoidance through abstinence, regardless of a student’s current or prior sexual experience.” It does require medically accurate information, and must also include information about adoption, the challenges of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, as well as detection, intervention and prevention of child sexual abuse and human trafficking and preventing dating violence.
Within the criteria, Nashville students have education on all of the state requirements, along with the classic diagrams of penises and vaginas; there’s even a bit of discussion about gender identity and sexual orientation. But what is perhaps most notable about the curriculum at MNPS is what is cut out. Red text on the lesson plan states several commands, including: “Omit emergency contraception page of birth control fact sheet.”
Students review a series of birth control fact sheets for abstinence, IUDs, birth control implants, Depo-Provera birth control shots, the pill, the patch, the ring, condoms, internal condoms, the sponge, spermicides and withdrawal. But students won’t learn what emergency contraception is, how it works, how effective it is and where to get it — including the fact that it will not terminate an existing pregnancy. The sheets certainly do not explicitly encourage the use of morning-after pills like Plan B. The materials say twice: “Emergency contraception is not a regular method of birth control. It should be used only in an emergency, when a regular method of birth control has failed, or in cases of rape.”
The “birth control choices activity” will also not see the light of day at MNPS. In the activity, students read a paragraph about a couple and identify what is the best birth control choice for them, why, and where they can get it.
Two additional slides about birth control are scratched from the lesson plan. One titled “Getting Help With Birth Control” explains that some birth control methods require a prescription or have to be inserted by a health care provider. It urges that professional counseling and a trip to the doctor are beneficial, and notes: “The most important thing to remember about birth control is that it needs to be used correctly and consistently to work!”
Another omitted slide titled “Personal Questions” asks students to consider: “How easy will this method be for me to get? How easy will this method be to use? Does this method fit with my personal or family’s values?” A slide that asks students to write down all the benefits of abstinence they can think of in one minute, on the other hand, remains.
State law does not specifically ban teaching about contraception, but does ban it being distributed on school property. So it’s unclear why students cannot learn about emergency contraception or complete activities analyzing their birth control choices.
The state board of education punted the Scene’s question about why the slides are omitted to the local education agency (MNPS). MNPS spokesperson Sean Braisted says the teacher who developed the scope and sequence of the curriculum has retired. But it is reviewed and updated each year also to comply with state laws.
Correction: A previous version of this story noted that the Tennessee State Board of Education and the Tennessee Department of Education establish school curriculum in accordance with state law. The two bodies establish academic standards, not curriculum. We apologize for the error.
