In February 2009, Clarke County became the first county in Georgia to reverse a long-standing policy of teaching “abstinence-only” programs when the local board of education voted 8-1 in favor of providing medically accurate, honest sex education in county schools.  The board ended “abstinence-only” programs in order to help contain the county’s high teen-pregnancy rate. Clarke County has one of the highest teen-pregnancy rates in Georgia, a state which is in the nation’s top 10. 

In response to this policy change, Kim Nolte, vice president for the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, said, "It's a proud moment for Athens, it's a proud moment for Georgia to be able to move sex education forward and to be able to give our young people the information that they're clamoring for.  They need to make healthy choices for themselves and for their futures."

Ryan Blackburn, Clarke Schools Expand Sex Ed, Athens Banner-Herald, Feb. 12, 2009, at http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/021309/new_387385582.shtml# (last visited Oct. 26, 2009).