Sex Education Should Be Taught In Schools

In my high school, there was one health class. In that health class, we were taught everything but about sex, and contraceptives. There has been many debates about whether to teach abstinence only sex ed classes, or comprehensive classes over the years. The truth is, HIV/AIDS, and STDs are at an all time high. Our youth needs to be informed about how to prevent the contraction of STD’s, STI’s, and pregnancies. Younger people ages 15-24 make up about ¼ of the sexually active community, but acquire ½ of all the STI’s yearly. So many teenagers are misinformed about sex, and are taught false things about it. Having a class that would help inform boys and girls about all the risks of having sex would benefit today’s youth in more ways than one.

Not enough boys and girls know how to prevent pregnancy. They should be taught all about the contraceptives that are out there, and how to use condoms. In an article from SIECUS, “According to a study by researchers from Guttmacher and Columbia University published in the January 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, approximately 86% of the decline in teenage pregnancy in this country between 1995 and 2002 was due to dramatic improvements in contraceptive use, including increases in the use of individual methods, increases in the use of multiple methods, and substantial declines in nonuse” (SIECUS). If girls were taught about contraceptives, and how to use them then there would be less teen pregnancies. In 2013, according to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, there were 249,067 teen pregnancies in 2014, which costs taxpayers $9.4 billion for childbearing annually. A survey from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that “more than 47 percent of all high school students say they have had sex, and 15 percent of high school students have had sex with four or more partners during their lifetime. Among students who had sex in the three months prior to the survey, 60 percent reported condom use and 23 percent reported birth control pill use during their last sexual encounter”. More girls should be aware of the options

A lot of teenagers have false information about sex, that can lead to disasters. Like “ When you have sex for your first time, you can’t get pregnant”, “You’d know if you got an STD”, or “You can’t get STDs from oral sex”. There are many, many myths that have been spread around, and people believe them. It is crucial for teens to get the right information before they have sex, or before something bad happens like contracting an STD or getting pregnant. 60% of teens said that they got information about sex and relationships from television. 52% said that they got information from friends, and 47% said that they got information from magazines. Having teachers that would teach correct information to students could help greatly decrease the amount of myths that are created, and spread