A Mom Shames A Texas School District For Canceling Sex Ed But Teaching Bleeding Control Techniques
Author Jenny Lawson had harsh words for schools teaching kids about trauma care but not safe sex.
A person’s priorities can tell you an awful lot about them. And that might be true for entire school districts, too. Specifically, it’s pretty telling that the North East Independent School District (NEISD) in San Antonio, Texas, is putting some very specific things before others when it comes to educating kids.
And there’s no better person to point it out than journalist and author Jenny Lawson, who’s known for her honesty and humor as well as her long-time social media following of moms.
“In case you're wondering how things are going in Texas,” she wrote on Twitter on Monday, “our district canceled all sex ed classes this year but is now required to offer kids training in bleeding control techniques, including ‘tourniquets approved for use in battlefield trauma care by the armed forces.’”
Below her summary is what looks like Texas’ documented law on the latter matter — requiring each school to instruct students on the use of a “bleeding control station,” which is also required at every school. These stations must consist of things like “tourniquets approved for use in battlefield trauma,” making it clear that this station is not for falls on the playground, but rather for the fallout after a mass school shooting with military-grade assault rifles.
Lawson clarified in a second tweet that the “Stop the Bleed” training policy is currently in place for middle schoolers and high schoolers, but a new bill under consideration in Texas drops the age of students down to third graders.
One teacher in the responses described what the training is like.
“I’m an elementary teacher. I did Stop the Bleed. The scenarios are terrifying. Children should not have to worry about stuffing wounds, chest seals, and the kinds of injuries that require them. But middle & HS students ABSOLUTELY should know how their bodies function,” she wrote.
Parents were also not thrilled with the the news.
“My third graders can’t remember their multiplication facts on a stress free day, but sure, let’s throw Army triage instructions at them after they’re traumatized by a barrage of bullets and their friends getting turned into mincemeat,” one mom wrote.
“Masks were traumatizing. CRT makes them feel bad,” one dad wrote. “But field dressing wounds is okay?”
“Bleeding control techniques will do nothing for injuries caused by AR-15 type weapons. Nothing,” another wrote.
Currently, Texas is just one of five states in the nation that requires parents to opt their children into sex education learning. Sex education in schools is not required by law in Texas, health class is not required for high schoolers, and information in these classes is not required to be medically accurate.
And even after updates to the curriculum that took place in 2022, Texas schools still engage in abstinence-first sex education while not teaching key issues like consent. These approaches lead to more unsafe sex and sexual assaults, according to research.
At the same time, Texas was the location of one of the most horrific school massacres in United States history just a year ago in Uvalde, and just an hour or so from San Antonio. In that school shooting, two teachers and 19 children were murdered.
In Lawson’s school district, sex ed was canceled altogether this year because the program they had in place did not meet the requirements of the new sex ed laws that went into effect this year. A committee is now battling out whether to instate a more conservative program called “Heritage Keepers” or a more evidence-based program called “Choosing the Best.”
Earlier this month, Lawson shared another unbelievable law that seems to violate the separation of church and state: a requirement to bring the Ten Commandments, prayer, and bible reading into the classroom.
“Absolutely crazy,” wrote Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett. “Today the Texas Senate passed a bill to force every public school classroom in the state to prominently display a copy of the Ten Commandments. They also passed a bill to set prayer and bible reading times during the school day.”
Maybe students can be comforted by religion if a gunman breaks into their school.
