I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Did you know that health education is not a required course for high school graduation in New Mexico? That will change if Gov. Richardson signs a bill that cleared the Legislature today. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mary Helen Garcia, will change Health from an elective to a requirement, and mandates that it be taught by a certified Health teacher.
In 2005, the state required that all students get some form of health education, but they allowed that curriculum to be spread out through other regular classes, meaning some biology teachers could be forced to deliver lectures on the birds and the bees…and the birds and the bees.
The problem with that is, “the kids usually get the knowledge part of it, but not the skills,” Joan Lamunyon Sanford of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice told The Independent after the vote.
What skills?
Learning how to say, “No, you’ve been drinking, I don’t want to get in the car with you…or doing a research project on where to go to get immunizations or contraception,” Sanford explained.
Certified health teachers are better able to help kids make healthier choices, she said.
During debate on the bill Wednesday, Sen. Mark Boitano expressed concern that, because the bill would mandated sex-ed, some parents wouldn’t be able to opt-out of curriculum of which they did not approve.
He was assured that the bill did not change parents’ existing right to opt-out of any element of the sex-ed curriculum.
According to officials, very few parents opt-out of sex-ed programs, even comprehensive programs that teach contraception and safer sex.
Sen. Dede Feldman spoke passionately of the need for health education, referring to the results of the 2007 New Mexico Youth Risk and Resilience Survey, which showed that:
New Mexico ranks first in the nation for certain health-related risks among youth, including use of alcohol and marijuana before age 13; having been in a physical fight; skipping school due to unsafe feelings at or traveling to and from school; having seriously considered suicide; or having made a suicide attempt.
