Is our current sex-ed system enough?

STAFF-ED: Miami-Dade’s lack of a comprehensive sex-ed program keeps students from creating healthy sexual relationships

The debate over the best way to execute sexual education for adolescents in public education has evolved into a widely-argued issue in recent years. The issue in question has become a debate based on ethical and moral beliefs. However, regardless of personal grievances, effective sexual education must be tailored to meet the needs of the current generation of young adults, including those who are members of the LGBTQ+ community. Abstinence only education— self-enforced restraint from indulging in sexual activities — is a commonly-imposed form of sexual education that perpetuates fear in teenagers’ minds through talk of the “horrific consequences” of sex rather than informing students on safer sex practices by offering valuable instruction and guidance.

Miami-Dade County has not yet adopted a comprehensive sex education system that would require necessary information regarding sex to be taught. Although the school incorporates proper sexual education on a variety of subjects through the Health Information Project (HIP), this program is only offered at a small portion of schools.

Those who are in favor of abstinence only courses being taught in schools often do so due to the belief that it will aid in reducing the number of partners an individual has, and therefore lead to lower rates of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases and infections. However, this could not be further from the truth — as teenagers are not phased by the imposition of abstinence.

The practice of enforcing abstinence-only as a form of sexual education has led to the formation of a youth culture that represses sexuality instead of normalizing it. However, the current generation of young adults is more likely to denounce this mindset. Ninety-seven percent of Americans from 1994 to 2003 had premarital sex, as reported by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Abstinence is not commonly practiced or plausible in today’s society, which proves that adaptations must be made that embrace the modern lifestyle practiced by most young adults today in the present-day.

Programs that advocate for abstinence-only often also impose heterosexual marriage as the only plausible context in which sex is acceptable. However, today’s youth includes a diverse pool of people, including those belonging to the LGBTQ+ community. Sexual education programs in place at many schools often do not take LGBTQ+ individuals into consideration. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), less than 40% of high schools and fewer than one in six middle schools teach all of the required topics put in place by the CDC that are crucial for young people, which includes those focused on LGBTQ+ issues.

“As a bisexual man, just learning how sexual intercourse between same-sex couples works would have helped me,” senior Virgilio Davila said. “Also, abstinence is nonexistent in high school, so teaching us how to put on a condom would probably be more useful.”

According to the Human Rights Campaign, 60% of LGBTQ+ youth reported feelings of sadness and hopelessness. The lack of information and representation faced by these young adults can result in feelings of exclusion, and eventually extensive issues regarding mental health. In South Florida, at least 4.2% of the population identifies as being part of the LGBTQ+ community, as reported by the Miami Times, which makes the LGBTQ+ community a small but substantial portion of the population in need of guidance tailored to them.

An absence of general adequate sexual education, especially during the prime phase of adolescence, may have detrimental, life-altering effects including unexpected pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STI).

According to the CDC, although the rate of teenage pregnancies in the United States has dropped in recent years, it is still substantially higher than in other western, industrialized nations, proving that the enforcement of abstinence-only, in the grand scheme of things, has not been an effective method in reducing teenage pregnancies. The CDC also reported more than two million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in 2016 in the United States with Florida ranking top 10 in the syphilis category, marking 2016 as the year with the highest STI rates in the nation.

Without suitable sexual education, young adults are deprived of necessary instruction and guidance that is pivotal during adolescence, a prime phase in mental development. The enforcement of purely abstinence as a method of sexual education is outdated, ineffective and attempts to push a specific narrative that no longer aligns with the ideals of American youth. The reality is that young adults are each distinct and require personalized sexual education rather than a cut and dry method. Abstinence-only is not productive in informing young adults about sex, nor does it keep them safe.

BY THE NUMBERS:

1 in 4 teens contract an STD every year in the U.S.

Teens 15 to 24 account for 50% of all new STDs in the US, even though represent 25% of the sexually experienced population Sources: Center for Disease Control