By Greenleaf771 (16, F, West Virginia, USA)
I recently finished the required freshman health class at my high school and was extremely disappointed to see that we didn't cover HIV/AIDS, despite WV state law that requires an "appropriate AIDS education." Our text book focused only on sexual abstinence, because of the state's "Abstinence Until Marriage" policy. These two policies contradict each other.
Where I live, there is a relatively low chance of HIV infection, but personally, I don't think that makes a difference. What happens when these kids--us!--go off to college in the big city without knowledge (or worry or care, for that matter) of safe sex? How about when they get married? They become so devoted to their lover that they come to believe that with marriage comes protection. They neglect blood testing and condoms. Little did they know that they could contract HIV—all of this naivety as a result of an inexcusable, faulty state policy, health book, and, possibly, disinterested parents.
I wrote an essay on HIV/AIDS Education Policy vs. the Abstinence-Until-Marriage policy, which I plan to send to my state legislature and a few other places when I finish it. If your state enforces the abstinence policy and you disagree, please act up. Make sure you have the facts and write a factual essay about the reality we live in. Send it to someone who can change something in the big places.
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"I'm wondering if anyone thinks that parents should be responsible for teaching their kids about sex and birth control. And just how much should schools be allowed to teach?" probes OhioSweetGirl |  |
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West Virginia state legislation on HIV/AIDS education, passed in 1989, includes this component: "3.5. Assurance that high school students, who have completed the health and science course requirement for graduation, receive appropriate AIDS prevention education."
I feel that this requirement is not being met in the health classroom. The text book used for my health class covers only abstinence, and thus safe sex is not a topic readily raised in the classroom. The abstinence-only mindset is not helped by the funding behind the Abstinence-Until-Marriage Policy so quickly funded in 2004, after the demolition of the Responsible Sexuality Education in Schools Act of the same year. If teenagers are only told about abstinence from our health books and teachers, how will they have the knowledge to protect themselves if they are sexually active? How will we have received an "appropriate AIDS prevention education," as required by the AIDS education policy, if staying abstinent is all we were offered? We are living in America, in a world full of high-risk behaviors, and encouraging adolescents to stay abstinent will never change that.
Though abstinence is the most reliable form of protection, it is not the form some teenagers will choose. For many adolescents, health is just a class they are required to take. For teens that lack incentive to learn about safe sex themselves, how will they know that there are ways to safely deal with sexual activity? Is it not the responsibility of the school to prepare teenagers for the real world?
The sections in our book that discuss STIs and staying healthy through adolescence practically demand abstinence; none offer alternatives. Abstinence is first discussed in depth on page 484, in step six of "Making the Choice for Abstinence." Step six states: "If you are currently sexually active, re-evaluate. One way of doing this is to avoid those places and situations that led you to being sexually active in the past."
If the teen is unaffected by the "re-evaluate" approach, they might learn more about STIs in later lessons. The teen might become scared that he or she could contract a bothersome or potentially life-threatening disease, but is still unwilling to sacrifice his or her sexual activities. So what does the adolescent do? She does not know that there are ways to protect herself because no one has ever taken her aside and told her. Though it may not be exactly desirable for teenagers to need to know at such a young age, the school system and health teachers should be responsible for informing the teen and his or her peers of alternative methods of protection.
If abstinence is the only aspect of sexual safety discussed within the classroom, then the class is in no way fulfilling the state's desire for "comprehensive" or "appropriate" AIDS education. If our books and teachers do not tell us how to remain healthy, how are we to know our limits—when crossing the line might cost us our lives?
The leading cause of death in twenty-five to forty-four year olds is AIDS. Most people dying of AIDS in their twenties were exposed to it as a teenager. In fact, half of all new cases of HIV are documented in people below the age of twenty-five. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2003 forty-seven percent of American high school students had had sex. And of course, HIV/AIDS aren’t the only potentially life threatening infections that can be transmitted sexually.
Comprehensive HIV/AIDS education has not been covered in the health classroom. The virus itself has been covered, true, but all methods of prevention have not been discussed. If we are to comply with the 1989 AIDS Education Policy, which demands "appropriate AIDS prevention education," should not the school and state allow comprehensive sexuality education in the classroom?
Young people are most likely to engage in high-risk behaviors. They are most likely to become just another HIV/AIDS statistic—just another number in another report for another year. It is up to the school system to change this. It is up to them to inform the youth—the very same youth that could make up fifty percent of the yearly HIV contractions, the same youth that could count themselves among the 900,000 HIV positive population, the same youth that could have an expiration date stamped on them the next time they crawl into the wrong bed unprotected.
Have we received "appropriate AIDS prevention education"? If the youth of West Virginia have not, who do we blame? A book? A teacher? Perhaps the blame can be traced to the two policies that almost contradict themselves entirely, one calling for abstinence-only education and another for appropriate HIV/AIDS education. Can lawmakers afford to snub their responsibility to protect the youth, and future, of America?
Start a safe-sex education revolution. Demand that adequate sexuality and HIV/AIDS education be implemented in the classroom. The difference may save a life.
• Sex Ed: Gone… and forgotten?
• "Sex Ed Tends to Build Up Curiosity."
• Debate: AIDS Prevention: Working Sound, or Jerking Around?
