Phyllida Burlingame is the sex education policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. Her publications include Sex Education in California Public Schools: Are Students Learning What They Need to Know? (ACLU of Northern California, 2003), a survey of sex education programs in over 150 school districts across the state, and Sex, Lies and Politics: Abstinence-Only Curricula in California Public Schools (Applied Research Center, 1997). She is the mother of two children in elementary school.
Nearly ten years ago, I made one of the toughest parenting decisions of my life: I terminated a much-wanted pregnancy.
California’s policies have undeniably made a positive impact on sex education in the state. But, unfortunately, sex education advocates can’t dust off our hands and move on. Many California public schools are still providing abstinence-only-until marriage programs, in spite of policies that forbid them.
