Sex Education in High School

Sex education is a must in high school. Many sexually active students have no idea the dangers, both sexually and legally. As much as the parents of today’s kids try to abstain them from sex, high school students are simply going to do it. There’s no stopping them, even if they convince you they are not active. I was one of these students.

My parents are extremely religious, and chanted to me my entire life to wait for marriage to have sex. Of course, I agreed to that rule, trying to make my parents happy, but deep down, I knew I wasn't going to wait. In today’s age, sex before marriage is not as taboo as if it was 50 years ago. I knew that I would eventually fall into that trend, the trend of having sex before marriage. And honestly, I was totally fine. I figured as long as we both give consent, it’s okay. Little did I know.

I lost my virginity to my boyfriend of two years. My FCS, family consumer sciences, class had a speaker come in and speak to us. One of the questions was “What is the age of consent in Pennsylvania?” She told us 14 years old, with a maximum of 3 years difference. I later looked the same question up on Google, and the answer was 16, but ages as low as 14 may be able to have sex with someone within a 4 year range. Then, I asked a friend’s mom, and she said 14 with a limit of 2 years age difference.

Hundreds of questions went around in my mind. Who is right? Am I breaking the law by having sex with my boyfriend? What am I supposed to do, ask my parents? Then they’ll suspect I’m having sex, and at the time they didn't know. I can't ask the guidance counselors because they will make a call to my parents. I was stuck in a corner I couldn’t find my way out of. What if, for all this time, I was breaking the law? And putting my at-the-time boyfriend at risk? I had no idea what to do.

Putting young men and women in this position, the position of not knowing the basics of safe sex, shouldn’t be allowed. If you think that not teaching teens how to have "safe sex" is going to magically change their minds about engaging in sex, it’s not. It is just going to put them at legal risk AND health risks. Would you rather have your son or daughter having safe sex, or on trial for a statutory rape charge? Or even lying down in bed with an STD?

Also, some parents believe that if we put sex education in schools, we are putting the idea of sex into teenagers minds’. Tell me something. When you were 15, 16, 17, etc., you didn't have sex on your mind? And in some cases, students don't. But the majority of the high school population does, and we need to cater to those needs.

Sex is a normal thing, and people need to stop feeling embarrassed about the topic. If you raise your child into believing that sex is a bad thing that bad people do before marriage, eventually their natural hormones are going to make them feel like a bad person. You can't stop sex, you can only protect it by educating students and the future generations on it.