Evening Buzz: Sex Education is a Crime?
Posted: 08:51 PM ET
Maureen Miller
AC360° Writer
Is teaching sex education to kids a crime? One Wisconsin prosecutor cautions the answer could be yes. In a March 24 letter, Scott Southworth, the Juneau County district attorney, warns five school districts if they proceed with new state sex education courses teachers could face criminal charges for contributing to the delinquency of minors.
Since under Wisconsin law minors can't legally have sex, teachers would essentially be endorsing the behavior and could be held liable, Southworth said in the letter.
Southworth also said the law could convert sex education classes "into a radical program that sexualizes out children as early as kindergarten."
"While it is true that some children will wrongly choose to engage in sexual behavior before entering adulthood, our school districts should never promote illegal activity," Southworth wrote.
The D.A. says forcing schools to instruct students on how to use contraceptives encourages them to engage in sexual activity.
"It is akin to teaching children about alcohol use, then instructing them on how to make mixed alcoholic drinks," Southworth wrote in the letter.
The new sex education program take effect this fall. But Southworth is calling on school leaders to suspend the classes until the state legislature amends or repeals the new mandates. The law took effect in March, after approval in the state assembly and senate by a slim margin with no Republican support.
Rep. Kelda Helen Roys, D-Madison, a co-author of the legislation called the D.A.'s letter "irresponsible", in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "His purpose is to intimidate and create enough panic in the minds of school administrators that they'll turn their backs on young people and their families," she said.
The new law still allows parents to remove their children from sex-ed classes and schools can offer to not off the instruction.
Tonight on 360°, you'll hear from district attorney Scott Southworth. We're keeping them honest.
We're also following the investigation on Capitol Hill into America's financial crisis. A congressional panel criticized two former leaders of Citigroup today for failing to understand the risks it took with mortgage-backed securities that led the company to lose an estimated $30 billion dollars and forced it to take a $45 billion bailout from the government.
Charles "Chuck" Prince, the former CEO of Citigroup and Robert Rubin, a former board member and top adviser at Citi were grilled by the panel. Rubin was also Treasury Secretary under Pres. Bill Clinton. Both men argued nobody saw the crisis coming. It's something we hear regularly from those who held leadership roles when the meltdown began. Tonight you'll hear from Andrew Ross Sorkin, author of "Too Big To Fail", who gives raw insight into the financial crisis and how it happened. Sorkin says Prince and Rubin offer "no real apologies." We'll see if he thinks the reform measures in place and those still being debated have any teeth.
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