The Senate Education Committee by a 4-2 vote Thursday shot down a bill that would allow Louisiana high school students to voluntarily and anonymously take a survey about their sexual habits. Forty-two other U.S. states participate in the survey, seen by proponents as a means of crafting policies and procedures to cut down on teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease rates.
According to multiple reports, senators who opposed the House-passed bill — Sens. John Milkovich, D-Shreveport and Republicans Mike Walsworth of West Monroe, Beth Mizell of Franklinton and Central’s Bodi White — say Louisiana is already well aware of the widespread grinding of teen loins and the nation-pacing rates of teen baby-making and STDs.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Patricia Smith, a Baton Rouge Democrat, urged senators to embrace the survey put together by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reminding the lawmakers that students can opt out of the survey and that it’s anonymous. But it wasn’t enough to sway the nays.
To his credit, Lafayette Democratic Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, who represents a minority district in North Lafayette and south St. Landry parishes that grapple with teen pregnancy and STD rates, became agitated with his recalcitrant colleagues, according to an account at theadvocate.com.
“I don’t know why we are against it,” the daily reports Boudreaux saying. “This is entirely voluntary.”
Boudreaux was joined in the losing effort by Sen. Conrad Appel, R-Metairie.