While President Bush preaches abstinence and schools are funded to teach minimal sexual education, high school and middle school students are being deprived of critical information that could prevent anything from an unwanted newborn child to disease.

Bush, who has spent more than $15 billion in Africa fighting AIDS, thinks it is only fair to practice what you preach. He has created a multi-million dollar fund for abstinence-only education for teenagers.

The money goes to groups in the U.S. that advocate the ABC-method that saved Uganda from the once prolific HIV epidemic. The method entails taking a vow of abstinence, being faithful, and using condoms (which is permitted, but not encouraged). According to a 2004 BBC News report, Uganda, by using the ABC-method, lowered the HIV infection rate from 30 percent in the 1990s to six percent in 2003, but Ugandans had never seen a condom before the Bush administration came to the rescue. Some did not even know that HIV was a sexually transmitted disease. For these reasons it is not surprising that the method worked miracles in Uganda. In the U.S., however, the situation is very different. Using the ABC method is ineffective; many more Americans than Ugandans are aware that HIV is sexually transmitted and also that it has no cure thus far.

What Americans could benefit more from are detailed accounts of different ways to prevent the transmission of deadly STDs. Condoms are 98 percent effective, but there are other methods of preventing STD transmission that students should know. According to AVERT, an international HIV organization, levels of STDs reached an all time low in 2000 and have been steadily rising ever since. The number of people who have been diagnosed with syphilis, chlamydia and even AIDS has largely increased and will continue to increase if students are not taught proper sex ed.

Schools are not teaching students the life-saving information that they have a right to be taught. Many adults judge teens as immature and too young to be sexually active. This may be true, but by neglecting safety, schools are only harming students.

Bush’s fund gives generous funding to schools that agree to teach only abstinence. Thankfully, California has not agreed to the legislation and has refused the payment. The issue, however, has grown too large to ignore. By striving to become an example to other schools and by openly teaching the many different ways students can be safe, Gunn can succeed in minimizing Bush’s abstinence-only movement. Also, by stressing the efficiency rates of each contraceptive, teachers can help students understand the risks involved and guarantee more knowledgeable decisions.