We are Georgia Parents for Responsible Health Education (GPRHE),

advocates for comprehensive sexuality education in all Georgia public schools and a grass-roots organization for parents who wish to bring about change in their school or school system.

 We share experiences and resources with individual parents, local PTA’s, and other groups of parents and concerned adult.
 We provide tools to talk with children about sex, and to teachers & school boards about sexuality education.
 We work together with health care professionals, educators, and others working with young adults, and with young adults themselves.
 We monitor sexuality education programs in local Georgia counties, and follow trends in teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
 Together, we advocate for comprehensive sexuality education in Georgia.

GPRHE believes that it is important that parents take responsibility for their children’s sex education both at home and in school. We would all like for our children to get the information they need about pregnancy, sexuality and sexually transmitted diseases at home, but we know that many don’t.

All children and young adults need to receive the necessary knowledge and skills that they need to make informed decisions about their reproductive health and their future.

This is why GPRHE believes it is imperative that all schools provide comprehensive sex education that fulfills the following criteria:

• It must be medically and scientifically accurate, age-appropriate, and appropriate for students regardless of gender, race, disability status, or sexual orientation
• It must include information on abstinence and other methods of preventing unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases
• It must help students develop skills for making responsible decisions about their sexuality
• It should encourage parental involvement and family communication
• Abstinence must not be taught to the exclusion of other materials and instruction on contraceptives and disease prevention

For more than a decade our Georgia students have received little or no sex education to help them during the hazardous journey to adulthood. Now - for the second year in a row - Georgia teen pregnancy rates are increasing. During the last eight years, federal funds have been used exclusively for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in schools and after-school programs. In 2009, a new page was turned, and these same federal funds will be used to prevent teen pregnancy. We, as parents, will now have to ensure that our local school boards and schools take advantage of any new funding available.

It all began in 2004, when parents at Shamrock Middle School (DeKalb County, GA) were informed that our eighth grade children would begin receiving abstinence-only-until-marriage sexuality education. Our Story tells how we succeeded in removing this program from DeKalb County schools.