This article was written by Vanessa Ryals, class of 2018.
I always imagined that in high school I would take the sort of health class often portrayed in movies, wherein students partake in discussions regarding sex and are assigned a fake baby to take home for a week. Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed when junior year began, and I had yet to be assigned my very own fake baby. I was even more disappointed when I learned that Heritage Upper School students do not receive any formal sex education. Rather than turning a blind eye to the inevitable, both public and private high schools should incorporate culturally-sensitive sex education into students’ curriculum to ensure they are properly informed about STDs, contraceptives, consent and potential mental and physical repercussions of engaging in sexual activity.
A 2015 survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 41 percent of U.S. high schoolers admit to having vaginal intercourse at least once. Research also shows that young people who do not receive sex education are more vulnerable to sexual abuse, unintended pregnancies and STDs. Currently, only 24 states and the District of Columbia require public schools to teach sex education in the classroom – this is not only due to the unnecessary taboo surrounding sex, but also due to the widespread belief that a child’s sex education should only be taught by his or her parents. Unfortunately, parents who are uncomfortable with sex education being taught in schools are also likely to be uncomfortable talking to their teens about sex at home. Not only this, but most parents do not know enough about STDs themselves to properly educate their children on the matter. As a result, teens turn to the Internet, or worse, their friends, for information on sex, possibly leaving them seriously misinformed, or completely uninformed, on the matter.
While parents reserve the right to impose their own religious and cultural beliefs on their children, students also have the right to receive factual and comprehensive sex education in an unbiased setting. Offering students quality sex education in school is not the same as endorsing premarital sex, nor has it proven to increase the rates of sexual activity among teens. In fact, studies show that no correlation exists between how informed students are about sex, and how soon students begin to engage in sexual activities. Despite this, Florida sex education policies mandate public schools promote abstinence as the only way to prevent an unwanted pregnancy or STD, if schools choose to offer sex education at all. While emphasizing abstinence may seem like the most straightforward and accepted way to address the issue of unwanted pregnancy, research conducted at the University of Washington in March 2008 actually found that students who received information about birth control in sex education were 50 percent less likely to become pregnant than students who were taught abstinence-only. It should also be noted that, with the abstinence-only policy, Florida has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the nation.
Religious and culturally-sensitive sex education programs should be incorporated into the health science curriculum of high schoolers across America to better prepare them to face real-world situations. Every person may have different personal values on topics such as contraception, appropriate sexual behaviors, when to have sex or whether to have an abortion, but many adults tend to agree on universal ethical values when it comes to sexual decisions. Schools should not hand out condoms as if they were lollipops, nor should they preach abstinence values. They should, however, emphasize the importance of consent, honesty, responsibility, compassion and safety, in regards to sex. Sex education is not just responsible for teaching students about the mechanics behind sex and the contraction of STDs, it is also responsible for teaching young adults about the mental and emotional implications of sex, including the importance of consent.
America claims to be one of the most progressive nations in the global world, but this claim holds no weight unless sex becomes less stigmatized, and schools take responsibility for providing students with a quality, unbiased sex education.
