Story: Texas Schools: 'Sex Doesn't Include Condoms'

Preliminary approval has been given to four new textbooks that only discuss the importance of abstinence. Only one of the four makes a passing remark to condoms and even then the word condoms never appears. They are referred to as a "barrier method".

The course will not mention contraceptives or give widely recognized disease control information.

"We are facing a small core group of people on the far right who believe that we should not be giving kids complete information and we think that's dangerous," Dan Quinn, public affairs director for the Texas Freedom Network told the Lewisville Leader.

Quinn pointed to a study conducted by National Public Radio, the Kaiser Foundation, and Harvard University titled "Sex Education in America." The study completed last year, shows that 93 percent of respondents said that sex education should be taught in schools. Only 15 percent who participated in the nationwide survey say that schools should teach only abstinence during sexual education and that schools "should not provide information on how to obtain and use condoms and other contraception."

But the man who selected the books, Kevin Fisher, the district's secondary science supervisor, said the books represent the most popular opinion by only teaching abstinence.

Fisher said that if students want to know about condoms they should ask a school nurse, not a health or science teacher.

His view on abstinence is shared by Gail Lowe, the local member of the Texas State Board of Education.

"I think parents have overwhelmingly shown that they want abstinence to be taught," she said.

Since the state has adopted a new policy to teach abstinence in all schools and leaves contraceptives and disease control education to individual districts, teenagers are getting a strong message to wait until marriage to engage in sexual activities, Lowe said.

Nearly half of all new cases of STDs, as well as HIV, occur in youth ages 15- to 24-years-old said Quinn.