New health education bill would remove HPV education requirements in Iowa public schools

SIOUX CITY (KTIV) – A proposed bill in Iowa would eliminate education requirements in public schools for certain topics related to sexually transmitted diseases.

House File 187 would cut the requirement to educate students about Human papillomavirus, or HPV, and associated vaccines.

The proposed bill focuses on keeping health and human development education “age appropriate.” The bill would eliminate the requirement for health curriculum to include information on the availability of a vaccine to prevent Human papillomavirus, also known as HPV.

Tyler Brock, deputy director for Siouxland District Health, said HPV is a common sexually-transmitted disease among young people that could lead to cancer.

“HPV is a virus that can cause a lot of problems later in life, okay, in some of the cancers that are associated with HPV, we really want to work hard to prevent those. And there’s ways to do that,” said Brock.

While officials at Siouxland District Health believe that education in the classroom is important, they say it is only part of what goes into the whole entire makeup of education.

“We want to continue to encourage some of this education to be done in schools. But, we know that’s just one piece of this and it’s a much bigger, much bigger. There’s many other factors that contribute to people’s health,” said Brock.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Sioux City Community School District said, in part, the district curriculum “uses age-appropriate and evidence-based instruction to teach students content related to human growth and development through our science, social studies, and health courses as required by current Iowa Code 279.50.”