Doin’ It Well

Teens can play a powerful role in standing up for their health needs and educating each other. Locally, the Teen Awareness Group, a group of trained teenage peer educators, provides individual and group presentations about topics like birth control, STIs and healthy relationships to local schools and organizations. The impact is powerful: peers who would not otherwise receive this information are educated on options regarding decision making around sexual activity, birth control and medical care. They are taught skill building techniques to help with their refusal skills and assertiveness and are equipped to ultimately make decisions that are right for them.

With supervision, training and room to apply this information to their own environments, the peer educators become highly effective in their roles. In addition, teen educators are incredibly knowledgeable about how informed their peers are on sexual health issues; they are very aware of what kind of education needs to happen. This kind of teen-led model is really important if we are going to provide sex education that is both medically accurate and ultimately useful for those receiving it - teens.

Figuring it out

As advocates for accurate sex education, we are often confronted with questions about what kind of sex education is appropriate for children and adolescents. Generally, there is a fear that sex education - usually within junior high or high school - would be too advanced, morally inappropriate or replace the role of the parent. There’s also a dual assumption: “Children I know aren’t going to have sex, and those who are having sex aren’t children I know or care about.” Therefore, the question of sex education seems moot; it doesn’t impact our lives.

For those of us who were adolescents once, we should know better! Although some teens are not sexually active, most teens are experimenting sexually in some way. In addition, all children and teens are sexual individuals. Unfortunately for most of us, we had to figure out sexuality without assistance from educators, parents or other adults. How awesome would it have been if we were provided with information that would have helped us understand sex and make decisions that matched our values?

According to the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health (ICAH), 83 percent of Illinois residents believe that students in this state should receive information about birth control and sexually transmitted infection prevention. Almost 90 percent of Illinois residents believe that teens should not be sexually active, but they should know how to practice safer sex. In another study, ICAH found that 66 percent of sex education teachers do not teach about how to use condoms. Over half of these teachers didn’t even provide information about where to find birth control or sexual health-related resources.

Teens speaking up

“Adults” have fought for quite awhile over what is appropriate sex education for adolescents. Just recently, abstinence-only education - which is what it sounds like: abstinence and more abstinence - received an increase in funding from Congress. (You may remember the recent report released by the government that found that abstinence-only education was not an effective form of sex education.)

However, the voices that we haven’t been hearing from (mostly because adults aren’t listening) are the voices of teens. Teens should be dictating what their health curricula teaches them, if for no other reason than because these classes are specifically for them.

For the past three years, the Campaign for Comprehensive Sex Education (CCSE) has been working with community leaders, parents, teens and school representatives to promote medically accurate and comprehensive sex education in local schools. Last year, the Urbana School Board approved a health curriculum which drew heavily upon existing comprehensive sex education curricula.

For the fall, CCSE is planning to host a sex education resource fair to give parents, teachers, children, adolescents and other interested individuals an opportunity to hear what sex education could look like in CU, resources for talking with kids about sex and information about how we can all advocate for age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education in our community.

Teens we need YOU!

Do you enjoy our column? Are you interested in sexual health? Are you bored this summer? Then join us in sex education initiatives happening here in CU!

CCSE is in the beginning stages of planning the comprehensive sex ed. resource fair for the fall. Because comprehensive sex education affects teens, you are a necessary voice in this group. Join us at CCSE’s upcoming planning meetings; meet new people; learn more about sexuality; and help us plan the sex education resource fair.

Sex 411: Be a part of comprehensive sex education for CU!

• Planning meetings for CCSE will be held on July 2 and July 18 at 5:30 p.m. in the 2nd floor meeting room at Planned Parenthood of East Central Illinois - 302 E. Stoughton, Champaign. All are welcome.

• For more information on CCSE, contact Jen Cunha at jcunha2@uiuc.edu

Kim Rice and Ross Wantland are professionals in the field of sexuality and violence prevention. Write to them at buzzdoinitwell@yahoo.com