Chlamydia Outbreak Hits Conservative Texas High School That Preaches Abstinence


A chlamydia outbreak has affected almost 10 percent of the student body at a conservative Texas high school where school officials preach abstinence over education.

Crane High School in West Texas sent a letter to parents last week, admitting 20 out of their 300 students had been infected with the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia.

Chlamydia, which can be cured, affects both men and women, but can cause infertility in women if left untreated.

The school doesn’t have a human sexuality class, but does offer an optional three-day sex-ed class for juniors and seniors during the fall semester.

District superintendent Jim Rumage told Express News the abstinence education helps stop students from having sex and getting STD’s like chlamydia.

“If kids are not having any sexual activity, they can’t get this disease … That’s not a bad program.”

That strategy doesn’t seem to be working in this small Texas town, however.

In 2013, the entire county of Crane had 17 cases of chlamydia, according to Express News.

This year, however, those numbers will have to be revised skyward as state health officials notified the district of a large number of chlamydia outbreaks in Crane and in adjacent Upton County.

The optional three day “abstinence plus” curriculum taught by Crane is the only sex education the students receive, and it’s laced with shame-based wait-till-you’re-married messages.

Texas state law requires schools to emphasize abstinence over education as the only real way to combat STD’s like chlamydia.

Crane students also read from a book called Worth the Wait, which does give information about STD’s like chlamydia and birth control methods.

That might be changing, however, as district officials meet this week to discuss a new strategy in view of the chlamydia STD crisis.

Liberal residents hope the conservative state might begin a comprehensive sex education curriculum that will prevent future outbreaks of chlamydia and other STD’s.

A 2012 study found that teaching kids about sex meant they waited longer before having sex and were safer when they did and got pregnant less often.

Meanwhile, states like Texas that push abstinence over education had higher teen pregnancy and STD rates, according to Yahoo News.

That hasn’t stopped states like Texas from preaching abstinence over education, however.

In fact, a new Texas budget amendment recently shifted $3 million from HIV research into abstinence education, according to the Inquisitr.

Rep. Stuart Spitzer, the Republican who sponsored the amendment, told the Inquisitr that school kids should follow his example and abstain until marriage.

“I’ve had sex with one woman in my life and that’s my wife.”

[Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images]

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