The Legal Status of Sex Education in Mississippi.

The public school system should be so maintained, as regards courses of study, as to keep abreast of progress generally and to meet the needs of the times, and to this end it is the administrative function of school board members and superintendents to create new courses and rearrange the curriculum in proper cases. A rule or regulation prescribing a course of study for a particular school does not require that any particular branch of study shall be compulsory on those who attend the school. Nor does such a rule or regulation deny a parent all control of the education of his child. This paper discusses the status of legislation on sex education according to (1) Mississippi statutory law, (2) statutory law in five other States, (3) major cases that have been in Mississippi courts, (4) the status of the case law on the subject elsewhere, (5) model legislation that has been proposed or recommendations for legislative action proposed by various agencies, and provides (6) recommendations developed on the basis of the material presented in the paper. (Author)