Sex education has been an ongoing debate for decades. In the early 1970s, twenty states voted to limit sex education in school curricula, leaving the District of Columbia and only three states (Maryland, Kentucky, New Jersey) to require schools to teach sex education. By the mid-1980s, a fatal disease permitted through sexual intercourse was recognized; fear of contracting a disease sex education was quickly accepted. In 1986, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop believed that sex education should begin as early as third grade, stating, “There is now no doubt…that we need sex education in the schools and that [it] should include information on heterosexual and homosexual relationships". The lives of our young people depend on fulfilling our responsibilities”' (qtd. in Donovan). As of December 1997, the District of Columbia and nineteen states provided sex education in schools. Sex education covers a range of topics and concerns regarding safe sex, abstinence, gender, human development and growth, human reproduction, sexual anatomy and physiology, pregnancy, relationships, body image, sexual attitudes, values ​​and morals, sexual behavior, sexual health, sexual orientation and sexual pleasure. Parents and religious groups believe abstinence should only be taught in schools. Teaching sex education, for many, only encourages students to engage in sexual activity, and therefore parents should only teach reason if they choose to do so. Sex education provides information and answers questions for students who are afraid or shy to ask a parent. The information provided to students in this course will help reduce pregnancy and disease, provide information and help for any situation; and change some students' minds about having sex. Sex......middle of paper......Newspaper. Network. April 13, 2011“Many of those who promise abstinence are at risk of sexually transmitted diseases. Study: Teens Who Remain Virgins More Likely to Take Other Risks: March 15, 2005. www.MSNBC.com. MSNBC, March 15, 2005. Web. April 13, 2011. “Public Schools and Sex Education: September 20, 2008.” www.publicschoolreview.com.Public School Review. Web April 13, 2011.Waxman, Senator Henry A. “New Guidelines for Federally Funded Abstinence Program Based on Ideology, Not Science.” Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 111th Congress, February 16, 2006. Web. April 13, 2011. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Impacts of four Title V, Section 510 abstinence education programs: Executive summary. By Christopher Trenholm, et al. April 2007. Mathematica Policy Research. Network. April 13. 2011.