BY HOPE WEBB
“Condoms can give you STDs.” “All queer people were molested as children, that’s why they’re queer.” “The true love of marriage will protect you from STIs.” “Masturbation causes prostate cancer.”
These were all things Tumblr users were told in their sexual education classes in school, compiled in a Sexplanations YouTube video on Dec. 4 2014.
Considering the state of public education’s sexual education programs, these stories may not be as shocking as one would think. A 2012 database poll done by the Council of State Governments said that only 12 of the 50 states’ public schools were giving medically accurate sexual education to students. Of the 38 remaining, 14 had mandated sexual education programs.
Let that sink in. Fourteen states mandated sexual education programs where medically inaccurate information was given. Students were required to sit down and listen to people in positions of authority give them information that would affect how they live the rest of their lives.
“I’ve been feeling really angry lately because of the horrific state of sex education,” said Dr. Lindsey Doe, sexologist, professor and creator of Sexplanations, in the same earlier Sexplanations video. “Fear tactics, denial, shame, lying, discounting experiences and feelings – it’s horrific.”
Sex can be an awkward topic for parents to discuss with their children, so they may leave some of the details out, therefore entrusting public schools with their child’s sexual education. Unfortunately, this may not be the best option.
Mahomet-Seymour school district in Illinois is a perfect example of this flaw in our education system.
Although sex education is taught in three different years throughout students’ middle school and high school experience, students are taught abstinence-only sex education all three times. Their education never consists of birth control methods, and in high school, they are strictly taught the male and female anatomy.
In the district’s defense, parents receive a permission slip when students first begin sexual education programs in middle school stating that the program is abstinence-only. On the slip, there is an option for their child to opt out of the program, although the majority of parents choose to allow their child to continue in the program.
“We never really talked about the actual sex part,” said junior Bradley student Shannon Hefferan of her high school abstinence-only sex education. “We talked about body image, STDs and puberty, but never like ‘this is how sex works.’”
Hefferan said she didn’t feel that she personally was at a disadvantage because of her sex education. She noted, however, that two students were pregnant her freshman year of high school, and five students graduated while pregnant.
“We must show them that while yes, abstinence is the 100% way to prevent unplanned pregnancy and STI, it’s not the end-all-be-all when it comes to sex education,” said member of Bradley H.E.A.T. Denzel Washington. Bradley H.E.A.T. stands for Help Empower and Teach, and the members are peer leaders who help educate on topics such as sexual health.
“In a lot of cases, when all a student is taught is abstinence education, the pregnancy/STI rates increase because they aren’t aware of options like Plan B, birth control, dental dams or condoms and such,” Washington said.
The number of nation-wide inaccurate sexual education seems to follow the trend of teaching abstinence. Seventeen of the states’ programs that taught inaccurate medical information stressed abstinence. Twelve of them did not teach abstinence, and nine covered it.
This trend shows that abstinence-only education has a
higher likelihood of being medically inaccurate nationwide.
However, avoiding the topic of abstinence is not the solution. States that covered abstinence but did not stress it had the lowest number of medically inaccurate information.
Regardless of anyone’s feelings about how sexual education should be taught, we can almost all agree that it should be medically accurate in order to ensure that we have a well-educated and healthy public.
See the database where this information came from here.