NYCLU's Report on Sex Ed in NY State; Manga, and Hopi Art at the Brooklyn Museum

All Of It with Alison Stewart

This episode of All of It with Alison Stewart examines two distinct cultural and educational topics. First, NYCLU representatives Aliyah Ansari and Donna Lieberman discuss a new report revealing that New York

Key takeaways

• NYCLU report finds over a third of surveyed New York school districts used medically inaccurate or misleading sex ed curricula.
• 64% of reviewed materials omitted any mention of abortion, while 44% excluded LGBTQ+ individuals entirely.

Main topics

• Sex education standards in New York schools
• LGBTQ+ inclusion and consent in curricula

Notable quotes

"Unfortunately, not much has changed. So we still see that there's a lot of shame based messaging, still a lot of stigma and a lot of erasure when it comes to either LGBTQ plus inclusion or erasure about really essential topics like consent and healthy relationships."

Conclusion

The episode underscores the urgent need for standardized, comprehensive sex education in

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:07) This is All of It. I'm Alison Stewart, live from the WNYC studios in Soho. Thank you for spending part of your day with us. I'm grateful you are here. It's the first week of October, so it's time to start reading this month's Get Lit Book Club selection. It is the novel Whidbey from T. Keir Madden. It's a thorny and complicated story about abuse and the trauma it left behind. It follows three different women who are all connected to a man convicted of abusing children. When he is murdered, the women are left to grapple with the aftermath. T. Kira Madden will join us for a Get Lit event at 6 p.m. on Monday, October 26 at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. Tickets are free and they tend to go quickly, so reserve yours now to find out more. more and to learn how to borrow the book from our partners at the New York Public Library, head to wnyc.org slash get lit. That's wnyc.org slash get lit. Now let's get today's show started with sex education in New York. Speaker 5 (1:22) The Sexual Information and Education Council of the United States gives New York a D on sex ed. A new report from the New York Civil Liberties Union looks at why. The report reviews materials and curriculum of 50 school districts statewide. More than a third of surveyed schools used curricula that was medically inaccurate or misleading. Some was out of date. 64 % omitted any mention of abortion. And 44 % shared curricula that omitted LGBTQ plus individuals. So today we're looking at the state of sex ed in New York. We want to hear your stories as parents with kids who've gone through sex ed in school. With me now is Aliyah Ansari. Sorry, NYCLU Senior Education Strategist. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. And also Executive Director Donna Lieberman. Donna, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having us. You can read the report called Stereotype, Stigma, and Silence, How New York Fails Students on Sex Ed at nyclu.org. So you first published a report on sex ed, Aaliyah, in 2012. Now it's 2026. What's changed the most? Speaker 1 (2:28) Unfortunately, not much. And I think that what we wanted to do with this particular report that came out two weeks ago was to kind of look at what we, I guess, kind of look at what has changed, if any. And unfortunately, not much has changed. So we still see that there's a lot of shame based messaging, still a lot of stigma and a lot of. Erasure when it comes to either LGBTQ plus inclusion or erasure about really essential topics like consent and healthy relationships. Speaker 5 (3:01) So New York does not require sex ed to be taught in school. You know, a majority of states do require it. Donna, what are the biggest reasons why New York doesn't require sex ed? Speaker 3 (3:12) You know, that's a question that every politician should be required to answer. Maybe they're chicken. But, you know, it's strange because parents want our schools to give their kids information and tools to navigate growing up and being. adults, emerging adults, teens in our society. And the only sex ed that is required in the schools is HIV AIDS education. invariably includes some sex education, but it's not nearly what is necessary. And it's time for New York to pass legislation. There's the Healthy Students, Healthy Schools Act before the state legislature to require sex ed in all schools with standards, not with a script, but with standards so that sex ed is accurate. comprehensive, respectful, and age-appropriate. It's time, and as we... as we reel as a society from the allegations of what's been going on at Cornell, what went on a couple of years ago, it is now coming to light. The importance of sex ed as part of our curricula, as part of protecting every child who goes to school in New York, is absolutely essential. Speaker 8 (4:50) Listeners, especially parents, we want to hear from you. How does your local school district teach sex ed? Do you think your child received adequate sex ed in school or not? Call or text us now at 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. What do you wish your child had learned about more in sex ed at school? What do you think your school district needs to do? better with its curriculum. Our number Speaker 5 (5:14) is 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. Speaker 8 (5:21) Aaliyah, according to your report, 20 % of New York school districts had abstinence-only approach and 58 % had abstinence as a central focus in its curriculum. Why is that concerning to you? Speaker 1 (5:32) Well, it's concerning because if schools are choosing to teach abstinence or that abstinence is the only strategy that they provide young people, it leaves a lot of young people vulnerable without the information that they need to make informed decisions about their health, their bodies, and their relationships. Studies have consistently shown that abstinence only does not work. It does not delay sexual activity. All it does is ensure that young people are not provided the information they need to... make informed decisions and to keep themselves safe. Speaker 8 (6:06) LGBTQ plus representation was often left out. 44 % of districts shared curriculum that omitted LGBTQ individuals. Donna, how can greater LGBTQ representation in sex classes help students who identify with these groups? Speaker 3 (6:24) Well, If LGBTQ kids and their families are marginalized, are left out of what kids are taught and what's normalized, well, then they lose respect and agency over their lives, and they're forced into the shadows. And at a time when Trump is... demonizing women, is demonizing LGBTQ people, and is demonizing reproductive health. It is even more important for our schools in New York, which respect women, which respect LGBTQ people, which protect reproductive health, to teach young people. That they matter, that they have control over their bodies, that their bodies are their own, whether they're boys, girls, or gender nonconforming. And New York has to step up. Speaker 8 (7:33) This Speaker 3 (7:34) is the Speaker 5 (7:34) moment. You know, New York State does require, as you said, to cover HIV and AIDS. Aliyah? How dependable is the information that schools are supplying in sex ed classes? I mean, I went down the report and there was some report, some information there from 2014. Speaker 1 (7:51) Exactly. Yeah. And I think that's what we saw, too. And it's particularly problematic when. Remember, we requested this information in the 2023-2024 school year. And just as you said, there were school districts that provided information from the 1990s or the early 2000s. And once again, we requested for 2023. And so it's not very dependable, right? It's medically inaccurate. It's extremely outdated. And young people deserve better than having information. that is significantly outdated. They're just not getting the proper information that they need. Speaker 5 (8:29) A new report from the New York Civil Liberties Union argues that New York State is failing students on sex ed after curriculum from 50 school districts statewide was reviewed with mixed results. My guests are NYCLU senior education strategists. Alia Ansari and Executive Director Donna Lieberman. We also want to hear from you, especially parents. Do you think your child received adequate sex ed in school or not? What do you wish your child had learned more about? In school, in terms of sex ed, what do you think your school district needs to do better when it comes to sex ed? Our number is 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. This says, our parents had to sign consent forms to take sex ed in 1971 when I was in sixth grade. I had it all the way through high school. I don't know if you can comment on this, and if you can, I understand. But this text says, New York State doesn't teach sex ed. because of the Catholic Church, they Speaker 8 (9:27) have a strong lobby. Speaker 5 (9:28) Did you Speaker 8 (9:29) find that Speaker 5 (9:29) at Speaker 1 (9:29) all? You Speaker 5 (9:31) can say yes or no. I mean, Speaker 1 (9:32) I haven't found that. As far as our research, no, I can say whether or not that's true or not, but we haven't found that. Oh, sorry. No, Speaker 3 (9:42) I was going to say, but I was around during the... fights about HIV AIDS education in the New York City public schools. And the Catholic Church played a terrible role in trying to stop accurate, comprehensive, and skills-building education from happening in the New York City public schools. There were so many Board of Ed meetings about that. Speaker 8 (10:10) This text says, the school consent project has been in this school to teach them about consent, but what about everything else? What about standards? The HIV letter is dated like 10 or 20 years old. It sounds tremendously out of date. And is HIV truly the only concern? It's wild to me. District 13 in Brooklyn Elementary and Middle Speaker 1 (10:35) School. Sam, did you find that? Yes, absolutely. Like we said before, the only thing that is mandated in New York State is HIV AIDS instruction. So we do not have a mandate for statewide. comprehensive sex education. And if you are going to teach comprehensive sex education, it's not required for it to be medically accurate. It's not required for it to teach consent or be LGBTQ plus inclusive. So absolutely, we see that. And this is why it's problematic. You need to have standards. If you have standards, we ensure that all young people in New York have a baseline of foundational information. Speaker 5 (11:09) 34 % of districts provided materials that use shame or fear-based instruction, such as, quote, telling students that if they have sex, their reputations will suffer. Donna, it sounds like a basic question, but how is fear-based instruction harmful? Speaker 3 (11:27) Well. What fear-based instruction doesn't do is empower people. And it doesn't give young people any help in navigating very difficult issues that they face all the time. And it doesn't build an environment that respects people. It typically relies on false information. That's scare tactics, like to exaggerate stuff and misrepresent stuff. Like one of the myths is like, oh, birth control makes you more vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections. Really? No. Or, you know, and... Part of the fear-based campaign is a campaign by those who would censor what our kids learn by claiming that sex education actually makes kids sexually active. Actually, kids who receive comprehensive sex education are more likely to delay sex. And when they have sex, do it safely. That's something that... Every parent should want. So this fear mongering is harmful. It crowds out real information and real skills. And we're talking about skills related to bullying. We're talking about skills related to sexual abuse. You know, so much sexual abuse within families from people who are not strangers. but are known to young people, if our common understanding of a person's agency over their body and that it's not okay for people to touch you inappropriately, whether you're in kindergarten or high school, if that becomes part of the common understanding, the common culture, we have made an awful lot of progress. That's positive, proactive measures. to keep our kids safe and healthy. Let's Speaker 8 (13:43) take a call. This is Kadesha calling from Marlborough, New Jersey. Hi, Kadesha. Thank you so much for calling. All of it, you're on the air. Speaker 7 (13:52) Hi. Actually, it's Vidisha. Sorry. I have a funny but not funny story. When I was in middle school, I'm of South Asian descent. My parents are from India, and they actually opted out for me to take sex ed classes, so I had to sit in the hallway by myself while everyone else got sex ed. So I'm definitely an advocate for better education around this area. How Speaker 8 (14:18) did you feel having to sit in the hallway? Speaker 7 (14:21) Yeah, it wasn't great. I mean, I was clearly the only one. There wasn't anyone else that had opted out. So everyone that walked by, you know, saw me sitting there. I