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"Hey Wanna Go To My Place Tonight?"

Lately the class "Sexual Education" (sex ed.) has been taken out of High School students' class courses. I recently read an article on mibba.com called ‘Hello? Sex Ed Are You There?’ I must say that I agree with the author though they have left out some serious points.

In 1994 surgeon general Dr. Jocelyn Elders, voiced her opinion on masturbation. She thought that masturbation should be taught in high school classes to help the students from becoming sexually active. Her idea of masturbation was so that teenagers would pleasure themselves instead of risking the everyday sex risks of STD’s and pregnancies. By making this statement, she was forced to resign.

As everyone knows, the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s were a time of ‘pot’ smoking and ‘free love’. In that time period everyone believed it was okay to explore your body and go about having unprotected sex with anyone you wanted. Throughout those years, it was when the sexually transmitted diseases started to occur more often than normal and the STD rates started to rise. Now most teenagers who aren’t sexually active, and some sexually active, are worried about their chances obtaining one of these diseases or passing it on. Dr. Elders figured that teaching masturbation would lower the teen STD and pregnancy rates. Ask yourself these questions, do you think self pleasure is something that should be taught in schools? If we had listened to Dr. Elders would STD’s and pregnancy be such the problem they are now?

Each year, almost 750,000 teenage women aged 15–19 become pregnant. Nationally, most teenagers are virgins until the age of 17, at the very least. .Eight to Ten of these are accidental and 81% happen when the teen is unmarried. Most teenagers think that with Birth Control, that they are free to have un-protected sex and will not have a baby. The only thing that the pill does is help protect against pregnancies, but it does not 100% stop them from happening. Most mothers buy it for their daughter because it will help regulate periods among teenagers girls. Although, a lot of mothers refuse to let their daughter(s) use the pill because it gives her an excuse to go out and have sex, unprotected sex.

‘The pill’ does not protect against STD’s as many girls may think it does. One in Four sexually active teens become infected with an STD. One in four women between the age of 14-19 will become infected with an STD.

One of the biggest myths I have heard among teenagers in my county is that wearing two condoms at once, is twice the protection. Literally, it may seem so. Logically it causes more friction which causes the condoms to break more easily. It is a fact that 40& of women will become pregnant before they reach their twenties. The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world.Thankfully, in recent studies the teen pregnancy rate has been declining.

For most teenage girls they are able to go to a clinic and the visit will be strictly confidential. Pretend you’re a parent and ask yourself, would you want your daughter secretly going to a clinic for pregnancy tests and abortions. As a parent wouldn’t you like to know what visits to what doctor she makes? Most parents think that the visits to the clinic should require a parent or guardian permission. Although, from a teenagers point of view a visit to the doctor should be kept confidential. Say that you were 3 months along, and you are 16 years of age, an abortion is the only option, you wouldn’t want your guardians to know. As a 16 year old myself, I think I wouldn’t want my parents to know. Although, thinking from a parents point-of-view I would want to know if my daughter was sexually active.

In recent years, High Schools have screened a educational video called ‘The Miracle of Life’ where students can experience and see what real life birth is. Is showing the video enough to ensure that a student will not remain sexually active, or use protection? Is taking away Sexual Education the right idea?