Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte had syphilis. Having sex before marriage makes you more likely to cheat on your future spouse. Taking birth control pills increases your risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection. Lady Gaga, Tina Fey, and Robert Pattinson have all chosen abstinence. If a teenager is preoccupied by sex, they might be a rapist. These are just some of the falsehoods New York students are learning in their schools’ sex education classes, according to a new report released Wednesday by the New York Civil Liberties Union. Researchers reviewed sex ed curricula used by 50 school districts across the state in the 2023–24 school year and found that more than one third contained medically inaccurate or misleading information, and nearly half, especially in districts on Long Island and upstate, relied on ineffective abstinence-only curricula.
Contrast this with Canada, where sex ed curricula are determined at the provincial level. Manitoba’s new pilot curriculum puts strong emphasis on consent and introducing relevant material at earlier ages, as well as teaching high school students about their right to confidential health care and the risks associated with sexting, sextortion, and AI.
