Tag Archive for "sex education"

Posts Tagged sex education

It’s STD Awareness Month: Get Yourself Tested!

April is National STD Awareness Month, which means it’s also the fifth annual GYT: Get Yourself Tested campaign. 1 in 2 sexually active people will get an STD by the age of 25, and most won’t know it.

So getting tested is super important. And it’s something that you kinda have to take responsibility for yourself. I think most people don’t realize that you need to speak up and ask to be tested and for what–you can’t just assume that your doctor will test for everything as a matter of course. I was reminded of this just recently when I had a herpes scare (false alarm, PHEW!) I was also reminded that even though clinics like Planned Parenthood do offer relatively inexpensive testing ...

By Amy S. Choi • 11 years ago

Vagina, vagina, vagina!

Tim McDaniel, a 10th-grade science teacher in Dietrich, Idaho, is being investigated by the Idaho State Board of Education for “possible controversial lesson content.”

The content? Sex ed. The reason it’s being taught in science class? Because the school’s health teacher isn’t comfortable teaching students about birth control and STDs.

“Since I started working here about 17 years ago, I agreed to teach about the reproduction system because I was comfortable with it and he wasn’t,” McDaniel said. “This is the first time someone has objected to the material.” McDaniel, who teaches directly from a school-approved textbook, says that some parents are unhappy with him using the word “vagina” to teach biology.

Dietrich is squarely in the ...

Tim McDaniel, a 10th-grade science teacher in Dietrich, Idaho, is being investigated by the Idaho State Board of Education for “possible controversial lesson content.”

The content? Sex ed. The reason it’s ...

By Syreeta McFadden • 11 years ago

Plan B comes to some New York City Public Schools

New York City’s Department of Education is launching a pilot program making the morning after pill available to high school aged girls. The CATCH (Connecting Adolescents To Comprehensive Health) program will make emergency accessible for girls as young as 14 without parental consent.

New York City’s public schools may be be the first in the nation to introduce such a program:

The National Association of School Nurses could cite no other school district supplying Plan B.

So far, during an unpublicized pilot program in five city schools last year, 567 students received Plan B tablets and 580 students received Reclipsen birth-control pills, the city Department of Health told The Post.

This fall, students can also get Depo-Provera, a birth-control drug injected once ...

By Jos Truitt • 11 years ago

Why we need sex ed, for real

This infographic collects a lot of important data about teen sexuality and sex education in the US. We absolutely need comprehensive sex ed, and this image includes a lot of evidence why. Part of that is the high rate of unintended pregnancies among teens. But this entire image is framed around preventing teens from getting pregnant, and I can’t get on board with that. I can’t get on board with sex ed that’s about policing other people’s sexual and reproductive decisions. Offering them information so they can make more informed choices? That’s rad. Sex is a part of life, as much as some folks would like to pretend otherwise. So it’s worth being informed about, just like everything else ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 11 years ago

Why is the Obama administration endorsing a virginity pledge-based abstinence-only program?

Recently, the Obama administration quietly updated its list of “evidence-based programs” that “met the effectiveness criteria” for preventing teenage pregnancy and are therefore endorsed by the Department of Health and Human Services. This list includes the Heritage Keepers Abstinence Education program. Which is weird because, like basically all abstinence-only programs ever, it doesn’t work.

According to RH Reality Check, a 2007 study found that the program “had little or no impact on sexual abstinence or activity.” But that makes it sound like Heritage is just ineffective but harmless. In fact, while it “contains little or no information about puberty, anatomy, sexually transmitted diseases, or sexual behavior,” it does teach kids some stuff. Here’s a sample:

“Males and females are aroused ...

By Lori Adelman • 12 years ago

What do Peru and Utah have in common? Fierce youth advocates for starters

This week, youth advocates from around the world are in New York for the Commission in Population and Development, the United Nations’ annual meeting on development, health and rights. This year’s meeting is focused on adolescents and youth, and these young advocates are in town to ensure that governments uphold prior commitments to advancing the sexual and reproductive rights and health of all. We sat down with Thomas Alberts, a college student from Utah and Stefanie Suclupe, a young nurse from Peru, to find out what’s at stake—at the UN and beyond—when it comes to young people and sex.

Stefanie: In Peru, young people face many barriers to accessing health services, and violations of their sexual and reproductive ...

This week, youth advocates from around the world are in New York for the Commission in Population and Development, the United Nations’ annual meeting on development, health and rights. This year’s meeting is focused on ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 12 years ago

Tennessee doesn’t even want kids to hold hands until marriage

While Gov. Walker was signing a shitty new abstinence-only bill, the Tennessee legislature was quietly outdoing everyone. Last week, the state updated its abstinence-only curriculum to ensure that teachers don’t encourage teh sexytimes with all their wanton hand-holding:

Tennessee senators approved an update to the state’s abstinence-based sex education law that includes warnings against “gateway sexual activity.”

In a new family life instructions bill, holding hands and kissing could be considered gateways to sex.

The bill gives parents “a cause of action” so they can sue any teacher that breaks the rules by “demonstrating gateway sexual activity” and also bans the distribution of materials “that condone, encourage or promote student sexual activity among unmarried students” (why do I have ...

By Gwendolyn Beetham • 12 years ago

The Academic Feminist: Transforming Sex Education with Mimi Arbeit

Welcome back to The Academic Feminist, the series that bridges the blogging/academic divide by linking discussions in feminist academia to those taking place online. Today’s interviewee is Mimi Arbeit, a doctoral student in Child Development at Tufts University. You can learn more about Arbeit’s work on her blog. All comments and suggestions for The Academic Feminist can sent to the editor here or on Twitter @gwendolynb.

Can you talk a little about your main research interests, and what led you to choose this area?

I study adolescent sexuality using a positive approach, which means I believe sex and sexuality are important, meaningful, and potentially positive elements of adolescent development. I’m interested ...