Schools need to teach teens about sex
Growing up in Arkansas, my first experience with sexual education was with a priest who came to my Spanish class on a Friday in eighth grade. He made us sign a paper agreeing to not have sex until marriage and gave us a paper to take home to our parents to let them know this priest would come every other Friday for the rest of the semester. This was in a public school.
I was lucky to get this much. Arkansas does not require sexual education in the school system. If it is discussed, abstinence must be stressed, and contraceptives are not a required topic.
I was not alone in my lack of knowledge. Two girls got pregnant that same year.
Only 30 states and D.C. require sexual education. Of these states, 15 require that it be medically accurate, and 29 require that abstinence be stressed. How are teenagers going to be able to practice safe sex if they are never taught what is safe?
Sex has always been a taboo subject to talk about; why do you think we call it the birds and the bees? Teenagers are often introduced to the idea of sex on TV screens or computers, not by parents or school systems. Comprehensive sexual education provides clear resources and answers to questions that students may feel uncomfortable asking their parents.
Students who are not provided sex education in their schools run the risk of not being educated enough to prevent pregnancy. To decrease the number of teenage pregnancies, sexual education needs to be mandatory, accurate, and not stress abstinence.
Teenage pregnancy is a problem across the United States. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, one in four girls will become pregnant before 20 years old. Teenage mothers are more likely to need public assistance and live in poverty than other teenage women.
About 50 percent of teenage mothers complete a high school education by the age of 22. This compares to the 90 percent of teenage girls who do not have children who complete high school in the same period.
The average cost of medical and economic support for the first year of a child’s life is $16,000 per teen birth.
This cost is paid by taxpayers and states. While not all teenage parents need monetary assistance for the first year, 63 percent of teen mothers get assistance from the public.
These statistics show that social implications of teen pregnancy reach far beyond the immediate family. Declines in the number of teen births have saved $4.4 billion in public spending according to Power to Decide, a non-partisan organization that researches ways to prevent teen pregnancies. This amount could increase if the number of teenage pregnancies continues to decline.
Abstinence-only education does not give students all the information needed to practice safe sex. Abstinence-stressed sex education emphasizes avoiding sex as the only sure way to not get pregnant.
According to the National Center for Biotechnical Information, in 2005 the states that had an emphasis on abstinence in sexual education experienced an average increase of 16.88 pregnancies per 1,000 girls between the ages of 14 and 19 compared to states that mention abstinence but do not stress it.
These numbers prove that abstinence-only sex education is not an effective way to decrease the number of teenage pregnancies. Even with this evidence, Arkansas Code § 6-18-703 says: “It is the policy of the State of Arkansas to discourage such sexual activity” regarding youth.
The code goes on to say all programs within a public school must “emphasize premarital abstinence as the only sure means of avoiding pregnancy.” When we promote abstinence, we do not provide teenagers with the knowledge needed to prevent an unwanted pregnancy.
Students deserve to have the information needed to make decisions about their sexual health. Federal abstinence programs are not able to discuss the benefits of contraceptives in preventing pregnancy or HIV.
It is ethically wrong to provide students with medically inaccurate information. In 2008, the Journal of Adolescent Health included an article researching the relationship between sexual activity and abstinence-only vs. comprehensive sex education.
Comprehensive sex education was defined as medically accurate education that covers contraceptives. The study found that comprehensive sex education was associated with a slight decrease in the likelihood of sexual intercourse. The study also showed a significant decrease in the number of teenage pregnancies reported by students provided comprehensive sex education versus those with no formal education.
The study by the Journal of Adolescent Health was in agreement with the study by the National Center for Biotechnical Information in showing that comprehensive sex education has a decrease in the number of teenage pregnancies compared to abstinence-only education.
Students who reported having comprehensive sexual education had half the risk of teenage pregnancy than those who received abstinenceonly education. Medically accurate sex education ensures students make decisions taking into consideration all information.
Students who are not provided sexual education in school are reliant on getting information from other sources. For many years parents have been responsible for teaching their kids about sex and safe practices.
According to Planned Parenthood, 90 percent of parents believe that it is important to have sex education in both middle and high school. These parents report a desire for this education to cover topics such as birth control, STDs, abstinence, and healthy vs. unhealthy relationships.
Over 20 percent of parents of teenagers between 15 and 21 did not discuss birth control methods or where to get accurate sexual health information with their children. Over 30 percent of these parents never discussed reproductive health-care services.
The times have changed from when parents were expected to have tough conversations about sex, and they should have the help of the school system to ensure their kids are educated.
Although sexual education in Arkansas is not mandatory, legislators do recognize teenage pregnancies are a problem. Due to most unplanned teenage pregnancies occurring in the 18-19 age range, Mississippi and Arkansas have passed legislation requiring colleges to have plans to address unintended pregnancies.
These laws have eight requirements of expectations for colleges and universities, including having information on preventing unplanned pregnancies involved in orientation. The bill was able to have bipartisan support, proving that legislators in Arkansas recognize the importance of working to decrease the number of teenage births.
This is proof that legislators are working to decrease the number of teenage pregnancies, but they need to require sex education at the high school level.
Sex education must be comprehensive and accurate to help teach students how to avoid unwanted pregnancies. It is only when all students have access to information about contraception and safe sex practices that we can investigate other causes of teenage pregnancies.
Students deserve to have the information to make smart decisions about their bodies. It has been shown that abstinence-only is not enough to prevent students from being sexually active. Arkansas has started to take steps in the right direction with some sexual education required at the college level, but it is time to move further by requiring education for middle and high schoolers.
Students should be able to just be students, not parents, and this is only possible if we make progress with accurate sex education for all teenagers.