Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Ed

*Submitted offline by Michelle

Going to a public school you would think you would receive the best in sex education. This however is not the case in my school district. First of all, in order to graduate you have to take a health course that lasts only half the year. This means you take it either the first half, the second half or the option to take it during the summer is also available. I myself feel that half a year is not enough time to get a good sex education, because there are other things that are part of the curriculum. The curriculum in the health department consists of how STD’s are caused, and the symptoms, but there really isn’t much on how they get cured. Telling high school students how you get STD’s and the symptoms aren’t going to stop them from having the unprotected sex, which is the source of the problem. By discussing the way in which they are cured or not cured might scare them into waiting to have sex, or at least into using protection. To help with this it may be a good idea to distribute condoms to the health classes, and teach people how to properly put one on. It’s easy enough for teachers to tell their students to use protection, and tell them the different types of protection available, but that doesn’t mean everyone has the opportunity to get the protection they need. And protection doesn’t do anyone any good if they don’t know how to use it properly. B doing these things I believe that the numbers of new cases of STD’s and pregnancies in teens may be reduced because hopefully many teens will think twice before having unprotected sex.

Then if there’s something we want to look up while we’re at school, we can’t do that because any website with sex in the address is blocked by the system. These questions that many students have could be quickly answered on the computer may not be something a student feels comfortable asking one of the two health teachers in private or during the precious class time. When it comes down to it all students have questions that could make a difference at some point in their lives. In my opinion there should be someone in the school that students could go to, in order to ask questions that have to do specifically with sex. Like I said before in my high school in particular there are only two health teachers, a male and a female, but they’re busy, and may not have the time to answer each student’s individual questions. By having a person for students to talk to, or maybe a full year health course, in which half has to do with general health topics such as first aid, and the second half only for sec education. Throughout this half year, there could be question and answer periods and there could be a box where students could ask the questions they need answers to more privately all year through.

I personally have a student in my class who is also in resource, and there are some things that are discussed that he can’t handle. Some people especially freshman are not mature enough to learn these things just yet. If the class was only available to sophomores, whose parents and other teachers feel they are mature enough to be a part of the class and to upperclassmen, more could be learned in depth. Speaking for my classmates, I feel as though all teenagers need and deserve a sex education that consists of reliable and unbiased facts that will benefit us in the long run.