HB0177S04 | Health Education Amendments

Description
General Description: 

This bill amends provisions related to health education.

Highlighted Provisions: 

This bill:
▸ requires the State Board of Education (state board) to establish curriculum
requirements that include instruction in:
• consent, including what does not constitute consent;
• sexual violence behavior prevention; and
• sexual assault resource strategies;
▸ amends provisions related to when a student receives health education instruction;
▸ requires a local education agency (LEA) to review data on sexual assault for each
county in which the LEA is located;

Bill Details
Year: 
2021
Status: 
House/ filed
Last Action: 
Mar 05, 2021
Sponsor
Representative
Democrat - District 37
Fiscal Note
Fiscal Note Amount: 
$0
None
Utah PTA Response
Utah PTA Position
Support

While Utah PTA supports the concepts to be taught as proposed in this legislation, we are concerned about the conflict between the use of the word "consent" as defined in the bill and the legal definition of "consent." Legally, no minor can give "consent" to sexual activity with another person.

Impact on Children: 

This bill will add into our sexual education curriculum instruction that will empower students to gain knowledge and strategies to avoid and mitigate unwanted sexual advances.

When children are taught about consent, coercion; sexual violence behavior deterrence; and sexual assault mitigation they are better equipped to keep themselves safe and from experiencing sexually violent behavior. It would give them tools to express their limits and that they deserve to be treated in a respectful way.

Commission: 
Safety
Utah PTA Public Policy Program
National PTA and Utah PTA Resolutions: 

That Utah PTA seek and promote state curriculum objectives which teach behavioral strategies to help students remain abstinent or resume abstinence until marriage

Resolved, That Utah PTA educate its membership about current statistics, trends, and protective and risk factors of early sexual involvement;

Resolved, That Utah PTA encourage state and local public campaigns to create a social expectation of premarital abstinence; and be it further
Resolved, That Utah PTA encourage our state and national legislators to support funding of programs that provide resources for parents to assume their role as primary sex educators of their children;

Resolved, That Utah PTA support varied counseling approaches outside of school course work, with parental permission, for those students who need additional sustained support to delay sexual involvement or return to sexual abstinence;
 

Utah PTA Legislative Policy: 

To promote the welfare of children and youth in home, school, community, and place of worship.

Utah PTA Legislative Priorities: 

5. Support measures to promote safe and healthy environments and behaviors for children to prevent suicide, sexual exploitation, and human trafficking,