Seventh- and eighth-grade students at Smith-Cotton Junior High School will receive sexual health education beginning in December, Principal Wade Norton told the Sedalia School District 200 Board of Education during Monday night’s work session at Parkview Elementary School.
Norton said conversation about adding sexual health curriculum to physical education classes began last year, as counselors and teachers started fielding more questions from students seeking information about reproduction and as the pregnancy rate at the junior high increased. He added that Pettis County ranks 19th out of Missouri’s 114 counties in teen pregnancy.
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