RHB/1/22
Sponsored by Amelia Lewis, Joseph Garate of John Overton High School
This legislation was filed in the Education category
Presented as part of the YIG Volunteer 2024 conference
| 1 | BE IT ENACTED BY THE TENNESSEE YMCA YOUTH IN GOVERNMENT |
| 2 | |
| 3 | SECTION 1: Terms in this act will be defined as follows: |
| 4 | |
| 5 | STI- Sexually transmitted infection due to a bacterium, virus, or parasite. |
| 6 | STD- Sexually transmitted disease resulting in complications from a sexually transmitted infection. |
| 7 | Consent- an explicit agreement through words or actions to willingly engage in sexual activity. |
| 8 | Sexual Assault- Unwanted sexual contact at which at any point one participant does not or cannot |
| 9 | give consent. |
| 10 | Teen Pregnancy- The pregnancy of a girl between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. |
| 11 | Lifetime Wellness- A semester-long course providing education on functional health knowledge |
| 12 | intended to improve quality of life and therefore promote academic and health benefits in the |
| 13 | personal lives of Tennessee students. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | SECTION 2: The current Lifetime Wellness course required for graduation from all Tennessee |
| 16 | public high schools will have its curriculum revised to emphasize aspects pertaining to sexual |
| 17 | education. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | SECTION 3: The curriculum will be reformed to include a more extensive coverage of topics |
| 20 | regarding STIs, STDs, and sexual assault prevention as well as instruction on contraception, the |
| 21 | concept of consent, and building awareness of abuse in relationships. The inclusion of these |
| 22 | subjects will not subtract from the other materials covered in the course such as nutrition, |
| 23 | exercise, mental, social, and emotional health. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | SECTION 4: Every year an instructor teaches this course, they will receive an additional one |
| 26 | hundred fifty-dollar bonus. This will act as an incentive to teach said curriculum. All teachers who |
| 27 | teach this class will be required to go through a training course so they can appropriately respond |
| 28 | to questions, concerns, and any other unorthodox scenarios. This is especially significant given the |
| 29 | expansion of the course to include more topics of sexual education. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | SECTION 5: This bill will require 425,000 USD yearly and will be stipend from the Tennessee |
| 32 | Department of Education’s annual budget. Ten thousand will be used to provide training to |
| 33 | teachers for proper instruction of the new curriculum. The remaining funds will be allocated |
| 34 | toward yearly incentive bonuses of one hundred fifty dollars for every Lifetime Wellness teacher. |
| 35 | In addition to the fact that the Tennessee Department of Education will be responsible for |
| 36 | managing and controlling this bill. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | SECTION 6: This bill will repeal any bills conflicting with ours and add addendums to necessary |
| 39 | bills. |
| 40 | |
| 41 | SECTION 7: This bill will go into effect immediately after passage. An eight-month period following |
| 42 | passage will allow ample time for the curriculum to be adjusted. The course curriculum will be |
| 43 | taught in the school year after said curriculum has been created. |
| 44 | |
| 45 |