Sex. It’s a part of life, and it happens all the time.
But what about teen sex? How can we as citizens help teach teenagers about the importance of safe sex? According to Ohio, educators should teach abstinence, but I beg to differ.
From my personal experience, I have noticed how the Ohio sexual education system has failed students. Rather than encouraging open discussions about sex, body positivity and health, educators continue to make sex a taboo topic. Just as an example, I haven’t had one single lesson on contraceptives or teen pregnancies, and the results are as one would expect. Teen pregnancies in my area are more prevalent than, say, in a state with better sexual education. I even know of a sophomore girl who is currently pregnant and working at McDonald’s. Her boyfriend left her, and her parents won’t help her financially or emotionally. Statistics show that she will not be able to support her child, and she will most likely end up in poverty.
The Ohio educational health standard is, and has been, that abstinence must be taught over sexual education. In my opinion, this defeats the purpose of preventing teen births and STDs and instead encourages repression of sexual desire until marriage. For those of us living in reality, we know that sex happens. Of course it will happen. Humans will always be humans, and that will never change. What needs to be implemented is education on how to combat the negative aspects of sex, like teen pregnancies and STDs. Rather than keeping sex a taboo topic, we need to discuss it openly so that students have access to the proper education they deserve.
From my time in high school, I have recognized the severe shortcomings of the Ohio sexual education system, one of which is the abstinence mandate. Personally, I see it as a well-intended failure that could use some work. To solve the issue, I want to encourage more open discussions about sex in the classroom. For too long, abstinence has been the only method of teaching in Ohio. Its proponents mean well, but it is lacking in that it does not account for human desires and actually increases the likelihood of teen pregnancies in the areas that teach it over sexual education.
If I can go to college, I would be on the fast track to changing not only this place that I grew up in, but also the entirety of Ohio’s public schools. Ultimately, I want to be governor or, at the very least, a member of the Ohio School Boards Association. I want to make change. I want to guarantee that future students have access to the sexual education they need without abstinence being taught as the only option. Admittedly, my peers and I have been the victims of a failed sexual education system, but I cannot stand idly by while the students who come after me are doomed to suffer the same fate.
