State lawmakers are forcing local school districts to choose sides on the issue of sex education curriculum.

Now, in addition to teaching reading and writing to children, the district is responsible for instilling morals into the children’s minds, too.

We suppose that if sex education is not being done at home the school may be society’s only option.

A state law passed last year requires school districts to either choose to follow the state-preferred abstinence-only option or the abstinence-plus program.

The former option is what most Mississippians would prefer our children were taught. The latter option — which still promotes abstinence, but adds in more details about birth control and sexually transmitted diseases — may be what society needs.

We would all like to believe that telling children, “Just say no,” prevents them from having sex.

We would all like to believe our teens are not having sex. Unfortunately, the statistics indicate many of them are. The results are children giving birth to children.

In 2010, 22 out of 100 babies born in Adams County were born to teen moms.

That’s staggeringly high and a problem that will likely self-perpetuate as children of teens may lack good moral education as well and thus may be more likely to repeat their teen parents’ mistakes.

The Natchez-Adams School District will decide which option they seek later this week. It’s likely they’ll choose abstinence-only, since it is probably the more popular choice.

It’s unfortunate that districts are being forced to choose sides from a very rigid list of options mandated by the state.

We wish legislators would abstain from forcing school district decisions on issues similar to this and leave the issue of how best to educate the children up to the sole discretion of the local districts.