Variations in sex education curriculums dictated by state legislature leave students with vast variations in their sex education, depending on which state they went to school in.
By Juliana Krigsman
Juliana Krigsman/Radio 1190
*All names in this story have been changed.
On a Sunday night last April, I sat on the floor across from Luca*, a sophomore at The New School. We were in the basement of our dorm, the fluorescent lights illuminating loose scraps of fabric and wire, scattered about the cool tiled floor. Luca is not his real name. All names in this story have been changed to protect their privacy, given the topic of sex. When I interviewed him, the topic of discussion was sex ed in America, and how his high school failed him. “They were promoting abstinence,” he said.
Sex education (sex ed) has been taught in schools across the US for over a hundred years, as far back as 1912. However, according to Planned Parenthood, it was only in the 1960s when sex education began gaining widespread support. Since then, sex ed curriculums have been continuously altered as awareness around things like consent and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) has increased.
However, in many parts of the country students are still being taught abstinence, receiving no sex education at all, or are having vital concepts left out of their curriculums. Luca, a fashion design major, went to school in Fairfield, Connecticut. He attended public school up until ninth grade, when he switched to Kent, a private Episcopalian Catholic boarding school. “There weren’t a lot of resources in the health center. A lot of other schools had Plan B and stuff like that. Kent didn’t. There were a couple of other schools where you could grab condoms from the health center. They didn’t do that,” Luca said.
Josh is a former New School student who was studying illustration. He grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he went to Greenwich High School. At his school, Josh was told that it was better to abstain from sex. “My district was just like, if you don’t want children, wrap it up (use protection). And (my teacher) was like, abstain from sex.”
When fact checking for this story I stumbled across a form on the Greenwich High Schools website for parents to sign, allowing them to opt their child out of sex ed. Parental control over sex ed can lead to a lack of sex education, that can have ramifications such as a lack of understanding consent and pregnancy prevention. As stated by the National Conference of State Legislatures, thirty six states allow parents to opt their children out of sex ed, creating gaps in student’s knowledge.
Adolescents are disproportionately affected by STIs. According to The National Conference of State Legislatures, people ages fifteen to twenty four represent twenty five percent of the sexually active population, but contract half of all new STIs. “It was really about preventing pregnancy,” Josh told me. “There’s more of an emphasis on let’s not get pregnant, than let’s not get sick.” The cost for treating those with STIs totals to sixteen billion dollars a year in healthcare.“The sexual disease stuff did not get to me. I got sick from that. It could have been worse, I don’t have anything permanent. I didn’t know that I could get sick just from like, putting it in there (having sexual intercourse.) I didn’t expect that to happen,” Josh said.
I reached out to Greenwich High School for comment, asking if their sex ed curriculum promotes abstinence and neglects STI information. Jonathan Supranowitz, the director of communications and board of education liaison of Greenwich Public Schools, told me that “we provide appropriate curricular materials to our teachers. Our teachers follow that curriculum.” In Connecticut, schools are not required to teach sex ed.
Because sex education laws are determined by state and local legislators, there are wide varieties in what children across the United States are learning in sex ed, if their district even offers the class at all. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, as of 2020 thirty states mandate that sex education be taught, while twenty eight require HIV education to be taught as well.
According to the Arizona legislature, schools must promote abstinence, be medically accurate, dispel myths around HIV and discourage drug use. However, just across the border in Colorado, school districts must teach medically accurate information that is age appropriate, encourage parents involvement, and promote healthy relationships.
In Louisiana, as written in state legislation, “any public elementary or secondary school in Louisiana may, but is not required to, offer instruction in subject matter designated as “sex education.” Emily is a graduate student at the University of Colorado, studying education. She’s from Louisiana, and during her sex ed class in high school was told that all birth control methods are ineffective.
“It was all abstinence based. They were like, none of the birth control methods actually work. Abstinence is the only option. They talked about different types of birth control too, and how they work, but they were very much like, abstinence, abstinence, just don’t have sex,” Emily said. Only twenty two states require that sex ed be factually correct, and according to Planned Parenthood, only eighteen states require birth control methods to be taught during sex ed. “We were told condoms help but they don’t work, abstinence is the only thing. I had no idea how to use one,” she said.
For some, the discouragement taught around sex can create feelings of shame. “It’s something that’s a little difficult, more difficult to talk about than other things,” Luca told me when I asked him if he’s ever felt shame around sex, because of the way it was taught in school. “It’s one of those things where I have to stop and be like, is that something that you can say? Is this something that is normal, like, a normal conversation to be held? I’m always antsy if it’s brought up.”
Ava, a second year student at the New School, studying fashion design, explained how she felt failed by her school when it came to being taught consent. “I didn’t know at that time what a manipulative situation looked like,” she said. “In my first relationship, if I knew the rules of consent I probably would have analyzed the situation differently. If you taught me that wasn’t consensual, maybe I would have known and stopped right there.” She told me how she felt like no one in the class took it seriously. “Not even the teacher,” she said. “You learn everything yourself.” New York City schools have only been required to teach sex ed since 2011, and no school is required to teach the class for more than one semester.
Evan, a jazz major at The New School, went to school in Southern New Hampshire, where his school district stopped offering sex ed in middle school. Evan, who’s a Unitarian, got most of his sex ed from the Our Whole Lives program at his church.“The most in depth that I went was the church program, because (they were) really not sugar coating it. (They said) this is what sex is. You’re gonna do it.”
Through this program he received comprehensive sex education where he learnt about birth control, consent and queer sex, and, was the only person I spoke with who was given information on gay sex. In the United States no schools are required to inform students about queer sex. According to Planned Parenthood, six Southern States ban discussing queer relationships and sex in a positive light.
Alicia, an illustration major at The New School, told me that she was required to have her parents sign a form in order for her to take her school’s sex ed class. “It wasn’t an actual class. It was just something you could partake in. And if you wanted to, you had to get your parents to sign a form if you wanted to learn about it,” she said.
Alicia is from North Carolina, where according to their state legislature schools must “teach that abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage is the expected standard for all school‑age children.” Their legislation then goes on to say that tools must be taught to remain or become abstinent as well as to “teach that a mutually faithful monogamous heterosexual relationship in the context of marriage is the best lifelong means of avoiding sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.” Anyone who has engaged in unprotected sex is at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. “It literally left so little impact on my brain I can’t remember it at all,” Alicia said, when I asked her what she learnt. Only Greenwich High School responded to my request for comment.