Taking Stupid To A New Level

The state of Wisconsin just had a new law take effect in March. The law says that schools that have sex education courses can't teach "abstinence only". The law, starting in the Fall, "requires schools with sex-education courses to teach students medically accurate, age-appropriate information, including how to use birth control and prevent sexually transmitted diseases. It also requires the classes to include information about how to recognize signs of abuse and how alcohol can affect decision making."

This is a great law. The state government in Wisconsin recognized the fact that "abstinence only" courses have been proven not to work. They instead chose to educate their students about the dangers of the real world. I expect the law will not only prevent unwanted pregnancies, but very likely will save the lives of some of those being taught -- because it teaches how to avoid pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

But, as expected, this law is not popular with the fundamentalist right-wingers. They seem to live in a fantasy world that says if you hide the truth from students about sex, then they will never learn about it or have sex before marrying. This is just silly, because as any thinking person knows, you don't have to be taught about it to discover sex -- it is a biological urge and not a learned behavior. However, a proper education can teach students to be safer in their sexual choices.

But in Wisconsin, there is one fundamentalist that is even stupider than the others, and sadly he has a little bit of power. He is Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth. This nut doesn't just oppose proper sex education -- he considers it to be a criminal offense. He has written a letter to the school leaders in his district telling them that a teacher who teaches a sex education course according to the new state law "could be charged with misdemeanor or felony delinquency of a minor", and be subject to from 6 months to 6 years in prison.

He added, "Moreover, the teacher could be charged with this crime even if the child does not actually engage in the criminal behavior." He says the schools should stop teaching any kind of sex education until the legislature "amends or repeals these new mandates."

I can understand this fool being upset because his fundamentalist right-wing views were overruled by the new law, but he doesn't have the right to use his elected position to try and force the schools to ignore the law. I hope someone files an ethical complaint against Southworth (pictured), because he is obviously abusing and misusing his elected office.

I really don't think he could get a conviction based on his ridiculous threats, and if he did, I'm sure an appeals court would quickly throw it out. But the people of Juneau county need to vote this fool out of office. I don't care if they replace him with a Republican or Democrat -- as long as it's a person who will not abuse the powers of the District Attorney's office.