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Those changes “prohibit the teaching of sexual education coursework that endorses non-abstinence as an acceptable behavior or promotes sexual gateway activity.”
What the what? First of all, the purpose of sex ed is not to endorse sex. It’s to educate about sex and sexual health. It’s to inform students about sex, what can go right and what can go wrong. It’s to explain consequences of unsafe sex like STDs and pregnancy.
Now let’s talk about these sexual gateway activities. The amendment describes sexual gateway activities “as ‘sexual contact,’ as defined under current law in the Criminal Code, which is the touching of another person in an erogenous zone.”
And over in Ohio’s Criminal code, “‘Sexual contact’ means any touching of an erogenous zone of another, including without limitation the thigh, genitals, buttock, pubic region, or, if the person is a female, a breast, for the purpose of sexually arousing or gratifying either person.”
Basically gateway sex is anything except kissing without touching any other part of your partner’s body and holding hands. If your boyfriend touches your boobs, watch out! You’re having gateway sex.
This new budget ensures that sexual education in Ohio is abstinence-only. That means sexual education won’t be educating students on anything. I can imagine the class would go something like this:
I get that schools are hesitant to discuss sex with students, but the truth is, teens are having sex. Not all teens, but a lot of them. It’s irresponsible to think otherwise. Students are much better off learning about what actually can happen during sex from super gonorrhea to pregnancy. And where does this leave education about birth control options? Oh right, nowhere.
Quite frankly, it’s insulting to the students to say that they don’t get a comprehensive sexual education because they’re just going to go off and have sex. That’s not the case. Students need to be informed about sex. And it’s proven that the number of teen pregnancies are highest in states with abstinence-only sex ed programs.
There’s no such thing as too much education so stay informed as much as possible!
What do you think about Ohio’s new amendment on sexual education? Do you agree with it? Does your state offer a comprehensive sex ed program? Tell us in the comments!
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Would You Rather?
WTF? i honestly think sex ed is extremely necessary. it doesnt encourage us to have sex! it teaches us to always make the right choices, and the consequences of our actions. if there was no sex ed, teens would still be having sex. it wouldnt make a difference. except, they will be uneducated about what they’re doing to their bodies and will risk getting STDs or pregnancy because they were never taught about safe sex. i have a friend whose school has no sex ed at all because they believe it causes teens to have sex. she went ahead and had sex and then got pregnant because neither her or her boyfriend knew how to properly use a condom. she was in a whole lot of trouble. my school on the other hand teaches sex ed and if it wasnt for sex ed, i wouldve gotten pregnant too. i know how to use a condom better than my man does! i strongly believe that ALL schools should teach sex ed because you never know if people might be having sex, so ya better teach em about safe sex just in case!