Teens take sex ed into their own hands.
Comprehensive sex ed. Teens want it, and some state officials are starting to pay attention.
In Florida, Democratic lawmakers are proposing a bill to include curriculum about contraceptives, as opposed to promoting only abstinence. Though the bill will maintain that abstinence is the only absolute way to prevent getting pregnant or contracting STDs, it will allow for students in the 6th grade onwards to receive education about contraceptives, their benefits and their side effects.
As promoted to be “middle-ground” between what conservatives want and what liberals want, this bill addresses the reality that teens are talking about sex and have more questions than they do answers.
In the meantime, New York City high school students are trying to get that very fact across to City Councilmembers. Ten courageous Bronx teenagers stood in front of City Council last November, defending that comprehensive sex ed should be mandatory in New York City schools. As it stands now, principals have the final say in approving the comprehensive sex curriculum that was passed by the city’s Department of Education in October 2007.
The young female activists, who originally started this project to fight for comprehensive sex ed while volunteering at a non-profit organization, have continued to rally for their rights through starting a petition, creating a MySpace page, and disseminating self-designed brochures on sex. It’s apparent that these teens are more aware than their lawmaking counterparts of the discrepancy between teen pregnancy rates in the Bronx and those rates citywide.
Now that’s teen power at its finest.
By Pooja Awatramani