SEARCY, AR. (LP) — Formal sexual health education is instruction that generally takes place in a structured setting, such as a school, youth center, church or other community-based location. This type of instruction is a central source of information for adolescents. Seventy-Two percent of U.S. public and private high schools taught pregnancy prevention as part of required instruction. Seventy-six percent taught that abstinence is the most effective method to avoid pregnancy, and STDs. Sixty-one percent taught about contraceptive efficacy, and thirty-five percent taught students how to correctly use a condom. Strong evidence suggests that approaches to sex education that include information about both contraception and abstinence help young people to delay sex, and also to have healthy relationships and avoid STDs and unintended pregnancies when they do become sexually active. Many of these programs have resulted in delayed sexual debut, reduced frequency of sex and number of sexual partners, increased condom or contraceptive use, or reduced sexual activity. The broader goal of comprehensive sex education is to support young people’s development into sexually healthy adults. More than ninety-three percent of parents say that sex education in middle and high school is important, and most think that sex education should include instruction about birth control.
Holly Lindsey, parent of a senior at Searcy High School, enforces her opinion on the subject, “As a mother, I believe sex ed will only help young adults. I think it will help them make smarter choices in life. I think it will encourage them to respect themselves and their bodies. Yes, I want my daughter to be educated so that she will make good healthy choices in her life.” Although most parents provide information about contraception or other sexual health topics, their knowledge of these topics may be inaccurate or incomplete, which can inevitably lead to pregnancy. There are an infinite number of reasons that a teenager in high school could get pregnant. Mrs. Lindsey states, “I think teenagers accidentally get pregnant either because they don’t know the risks that are involved in having sex or they are in the heat of moment, and don’t time to practice safe sex.” Most adolescents will use the internet to find information about sex before they ever go to their parents or health care provider. The websites adolescents may turn to for sexual health information often have inaccurate information.
Madison Jordan, a senior at Searcy High School suggests that teenagers will learn about sex education by themselves rather than at school, “After 3 years of high school I feel like I know about sex education but I didn’t learn anything about it from school itself. It’s more of learning about it by yourself and teenagers around. That’s a subject a lot of teachers just don’t talk about in school. It shouldn’t be like that.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), instruction on sexual health topics is more commonly required in high school than in middle or elementary school. But fewer than half of high schools and only twenty percent of middle schools provided instruction on all 16 topics that the CDC considers essential to sexual health education. Among schools requiring instruction about pregnancy prevention, the average class time spent on this topic annually was 4.2 hours in high schools and 2.7 hours in middle schools. Madison proclaims, “Yes, I think there should be class in 9th grade about Sex Education. They’re babies coming into this school with 18 year olds about to graduate. Young teens don’t take sex seriously because adults around them don’t either.”
It is very important to listen to the opinions of students, parents, and health care providers when they express that we should have certain classes for students in high school. With all the statistics given, sex education could only benefit adolescents because they all have to attend school and they will all be present for the information needed to be heard.
