No mandatory sex ed course? No high school diploma
The argument for making sex education courses a graduation requirement
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Writer’s note: This post was originally published on Medium’s “We Need to Talk” on December 17, 2019. I was dumbfounded (in 2023) when a colleague told me he took his daughter out of her school and out of the state because they were teaching sex ed. He said he didn’t want her talking about sex with boys — who are likely to want to have sex with her. He just wanted her to learn about abstinence. I shook my head. This is EXACTLY the group who needs to learn about sex ed and ALWAYS the group who goes through a ho phase with a vengeance when they’re not under their parents’ eyes.
I could see my alma mater’s president’s eyes glossing over as I talked. I noticed the president’s assistant was growing antsy. She thought I was coming to talk to the president about the alumni association and my book signings. Nope, I walked in to the president’s office to talk about sex. If the students couldn’t get into her office, I’d be the mouthpiece for them.
I’ve written two novels, one of which was a compilation of mildly fictional journal entries. And while both books were based on life at a historically black college, one of the bigger points I was trying to make was based on HIV/AIDS testing and the complexity of a college virgin. At a local church book signing, I was asked to not bring up sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) because there would be “Christians who don’t understand” and “kids too young to understand what’s going on.”
I could talk about virginity all day long though. Although I abided by their rules, I raised an eyebrow when someone gushed that the church should also have Zane come by to talk about her books. So it’s OK to discuss erotic fiction in a church, but STDs and STIs were too much? Yeah a’ight.
Recommended Read: “Getting tested for HIV/AIDS ~ BEHIV: Free Chicago clinic” (page 1, page 2)
I thought going to college campuses would be an easier time, especially my own. I was elated that one of the librarians requested that I speak to several classes about my own educational background there and then have the flexibility to talk about what STD/STI testing is like. I can say with certainty that minus one girl who inexplicably raced out of the room, everybody else perked up a little more when I started discussing sex and testing.
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I added anecdotes here and there about my own experiences — including a sex ed course I took in which blind-folded students had to put a condom on a banana. My discussion wasn’t graphic, but it didn’t pull any punches either. It was the basics of what one would need to know about condom usage, accidental pregnancies and asking about one’s HIV/AIDS status beforehand.