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Get Real With Sex Education

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By EMILY MATRAS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 20, 2008

A shocking statistic was revealed earlier this month: One in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Academy of American Pediatrics reports that about 900,000 U.S. teens get pregnant each year.

And the list goes on.

These statistics show prevalence, but not impact. They do not address "why" or "how," but merely "what." I can help you out there. This is what I see:

I see parents and movie critics praising "Juno," the titular character of the wildly popular movie who gets pregnant and gives the baby up for adoption, for her maturity in handling her pregnancy with humor and finesse, as if the average teen would or could do the same.

I see 11th-graders gathered around a lunch table and approach them, hoping to a get a quote for the story on sex education I was writing for my school paper. I ask, "Do you think contraceptive use should be taught in schools?" They ask me, "What are contraceptives?"

I see girls lugging two-ton backpacks through the halls while clutching their rounded stomachs. Some are simply the pregnancy simulation sacks provided in home economics class. Most are not.

That is what I see, and this is what I've concluded: Abstinence-only education has been in place in Florida since 1998, and it is no longer working.

Many have drawn the same conclusion; a new proposal put forth by two South Florida lawmakers would move sex education away from "Thou shalt not have sex" to something more comprehensive, including how to protect oneself from diseases and pregnancy.

In an ideal world, teens' sexual libido wouldn't kick in until the doors to the honeymoon suite swing shut, and all parents would overcome the awkwardness and teach their own kids sex education.

But this is not an ideal world. We have a problem, and if we do not take steps to fix it soon, then teens will continue to turn to unreliable sources for sex education. It's not like, after leaving our abstinence-only sex-ed classes, we turn to each other and shrug, "Well, if they're not going to teach it, then we're not going to do it."

Sex can no longer be the elephant in the drawing room, or the elephant in the classroom.

This year marks the 10-year anniversary of abstinence-only sex education in Florida. Let's mark this milestone by moving toward a more realistic, comprehensive approach that deals with the realities of the world I see.

Emily Matras is a senior at Hillsborough High School and editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, The Red & Black.

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