“Don’t have sex, because you will get pregnant and die!” says Coach Carr from Mean Girls. Well everyone in North Shore High School was having sex (including Coach Carr) and in reality three fifths of Americans have sex before they finish high school. Clearly telling us not to do it, is not helping the situation. We need facts, but abstinence only education denies youth information regarding safe sexual behavior. Currently all across America, there are school systems which preach not to have sex to kids that are having and will soon have sex… picture this: a school that actually informs and educates children. On top of which they are saving lives, decreasing STIs and STDs, as well as lowering teen pregnancy rates.

Abstinence only education, is anti-education. Kids want the facts and 89% of Americans believe the youth have the right to these facts. However, someone somewhere decided that teaching safety promotes sex. This is an absolutely ludicrous notion. Comprehensive sex education encourages and promotes abstinence and acknowledges that it is 100% effective in regards to pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases and infections prevention. However, this form of education is neither blind nor naïve; it recognizes kids are having sex and it wants to help promote the safety of youth.

Abstinence only education rarely provides statistics, but when they do, they are often incorrect and dramatized failure rates of condoms and birth control. Often the reason why condoms break is due to the fact that kids were not properly taught the right way to put on a condom. I want every kid in health class to be given a banana and learn how to put on a condom. In the nurse’s office, I want a box of condoms to be kept next to her box of tampons. I want kids to be comfortable asking their teachers questions regarding sex, and not be denied.

This is a rare example of where kids are yearning to be taught and are being turned away by their teachers. Nine in ten teachers believe comprehensive sex education should be taught, but are not allowed to teach it. 86% of public schools encourage abstinence only education and 35% require it. And more than half of the southern public school systems mandate abstinence only education. 

Besides excluding healthy sexual relationships in health class, abstinence only education teaches that a proper family is raised by a mother and father. It disregards single parents, teen mothers, gay couples, and GLBTQ rights, with absolutely no education for GLBTQ individuals regarding sex.

Abstinence only education is wrong to be implemented into a supposedly progressive nation. However, we are in a time of change. Tell your senators to support the REAL Act, which provides funding for comprehensive sex education. If your school system prohibits safe sex learning, take it upon yourself as a responsible citizen and friend to talk your peers about sex. If you care about your friends, you would let them know how you feel about unprotected sex and show them you care by informing them. Silence is wrong in a time of action.

This is not a Democrat v. Republican issue. I am not looking for education promoting sex, but encouraging safety. I want federal funding to go towards teaching the youth and to help stop the constant rise of STIs, STDs, and teenage pregnancy. The people want education, but are denied for the wrong reasons. I encourage those in favor of abstinence only education to reconsider and examine the promising statistics of comprehensive sexual education.