Sex ed: Why is the topic so uncomfortable?

By Naomi Akinlami

At our school, sex education is not an established curriculum. There is no set sex education class where a specific module is dedicated to teaching teenagers about their bodies, protection, and Sexually Transmitted Infections. Instead, something that should be essential is left to the Word of mouth. Word of mouth means students explaining it to other students and creating this misinformation cycle that is never fixed because the adults who are aware do not step in and provide the proper education. Many students claim their last sex education class offer by the school was in middle school where they were taken to a computer lab and showed 40-minute video during class.

“Yeah my last sex-ed class was in 7th or 8th grade I think and I think we were in this computer lab and we watch that video and normally talk about it after that,” said, Senior Zainab Oduloju The effect of teaching sex education as it is now is most notably teenage pregnancies, untreated STDs among the teenage population, and misinformation about things such as STDs, STIs, and

their transmission(Obstetrics and Gynecology Journal). Sex education doesn’t just teach about sex and having sex as it is commonly presumed to, but it teaches about understanding your own body and your own gender. Sex education can encompass a curriculum from periods to protection to understanding the social, economic, and emotional gravity of engaging in sex unprepared. Time and time again it has been proven that silence towards a topic such as sex education does not eliminate sex and abstinence is not something that can be enforced by a lack of information. “Some parents view teaching it as a gateway to their children engaging in it,” said Andril Ruben, who teaches with the Pregnancy and Parenthood program. Some parents view their children learning about sex with their peers and in a public setting to be something that will act as a catalyst to engaging in sex essentially equating knowing about it to doing it. that logic is coming from a personal place and it cannot be disregarded as their fears are also valid but it also presents the question of whether or not learning about

sex means participating in sex. Considering knowing about drugs and alcohol does not mean that a teenager will begin to take drugs and alcohol yet it is not frowned upon to learn about drugs and alcohol at school. “Adults are weird about that stuff, they don’t want to think about teens having sex,” senior Treasure Amusat said. “It’s weird,” No knowledge can be equated to being lethal but the perspective of those who believe this should also not be ignored. Some students could say that because they know how to protect themselves and because they know the proper things to do they can safely engage in it now or perhaps recklessly engage in it and the consequences of that would fall back on what if they hadn’t begun with but that is simply a hypothetical. “It’s pretty weird, I know this stuff but I’m happy to know it,” Amusat said. “To know my options, and the proper way to protect myself, but not only that. To know that you can get STIs and STDs if you’re not careful, that certain contraceptives only prevent pregnancy and not those diseases and I’m sad that

some of these kids don’t know that.” It’s important to note that sex education is not the antagonist nor is it the cause. It should not and cannot be treated as a catalyst to something that cannot be predicted. Knowing or not knowing about sex does not mean that one’s decisions or the consequences of their actions can be predicted. Knowledge is an essential - one that word of mouth can only pollute - and perhaps by spreading the proper knowledge and creating an openness about the human body and its functions, more teenagers can feel in control of their reproductive organs, while avoiding the shame that many do when they first go through puberty. As long as we remember that sex is real, it’s happening and it won’t stop, the human race needs to populate, and stay aware of the opportunities that surround us and the limitations our bodies hold, we can reduce the unwanted consequences of sex while also maintaining bodily autonomy in a social-emotional and economic sense. It is also important to note that sex education is not only for teenagers but for everyone.