Sexual Misconduct

As you might guess, when I get a news release emailed to me with this headline...

"Vander Plaats charges Culver with Sexual Misconduct"

well, to say the least, it attracted my attention. Now, Vander Plaats' people say that was a big "oops". Here's the subsequent headline on the "corrected" release...

"Vander Plaats charges Culver with "Sex-EDUCATION" Misconduct"

Here's part of the release:

Bob Vander Plaats, former high school principal and 2006 Republican Lt. Governor nominee, claims Chet Culver has sold-out Iowa's children, saying, "As Culver promotes a ‘model core curriculum’ for our schools, he denies Iowa's school children model instruction when it comes to pre-marital sex...abstinence."

The Gov's office offers this response...

From Iowa Dept. of Public Health Director Tom Newton:

“The Governor strongly believes in supporting effective programs that prevent unintended pregnancies and protect the health of our young men and women – and he doesn’t believe Iowa or any state’s hands should be tied by mandates from Washington.

“Research continues to show that the current format of abstinence-only funding does not effectively achieve its goals of reducing unwanted pregnancies and STDs. Teen parenting is associated with failing to complete high school education. We need to support evidence based reproductive health programs that have been proven to reduce unintended pregnancies and the cycle of poverty that often begins with failure to complete high school – instead of playing politics with the health of Iowa’s children.”