Medical professionals, parents and students urge board to retain comprehensive health education

During an extended public-comment period at the March 4 Duval County School Board meeting, dozens of parents, students, teachers and medical professionals urged the board to maintain comprehensive, evidence-based health education and opposed proposals to reduce required instruction or make parts of it opt-in.

Speakers included emergency medicine physician Heidi Ashbaugh, labor-and-delivery nurse Karen Lee Duffel, high-school and district health teachers, parents and students. Common themes were that comprehensive health education is mandated by state statute, saves lives and reduces teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and that reducing instruction would harm vulnerable students.

Medical speakers cited emergency-room experience treating sexually transmitted infections and pregnancies among teenagers. Ashbaugh said she treats sexually transmitted infections “every single shift” and urged the board not to reduce health education. Several students said they lacked access at home to accurate information and that school-based health instruction is essential.

Other speakers urged the board to preserve the current opt-out process rather than instituting opt-in, warning that opt-in would create barriers for working families. Supporters of continued funding also pointed to related needs such as full-time media specialists and library funding, highlighting systemic resource concerns.

Board members said the curriculum itself is state-approved and that the board had not voted to change what is taught; instead, workshop discussions addressed delivery and implementation. The meeting’s public comment reflected strong community interest on both sides of the issue, but the board did not take a formal vote on health curriculum that evening.