Is Abstinence-Only

Education Safe?

Tori Neal & Cheyenne Karst

 Our Main
Point:

Our schools need to provide

more comprehensive and
extensive sex education.
Intention to Include:
● Require schools to teach of contraceptives
● Require schools to teach of consent
● Require schools to teach what really is sexual
intercourse

Our goal is to require the state to teach more

about safe sex than about attempting to prevent
kids from having sex.
What’s the difference?
Abstinence only education
● A form of sex education that
teaches not having sex outside
of marriage, often excluding
other parts of sexual health
such as birth control and safe
sex.
Comprehensive sexual education
● A planned, sequential K-12
curriculum that is part of a
comprehensive school health
education approach which
addresses age-appropriate
physical, mental, emotional and
social dimensions of human
sexuality. This plan includes
not only abstinence education,
but also birth control and safe
sex.
Comprehensive ● Physical/ mental/ emotional/

Sex Ed social demensions of seuality in

grades K-12
● Anatomy/ healthy
relationships/ pregnancy and
birth/ contraceptives/ sexual
orientation
● Builds foundation for
conversations in age
appropriate ways
What is taught at our school?

● Abstinence/ STDs from unprotected sex

○ How to practice safe sex- not taught
● Health book
○ Abstinence- ±10
○ Condom- 0
○ Contraceptive- 0
○ Rape- 3
○ Ice skating safety- 1
● Child development teaches contraceptives
○ Not required class
Current Indiana Law
Other Schools
California
Alberta Catholic Schools
● Same sex relationships
prohibited
● Gender identity connected
with gender at birth
● Does not teach consent/ birth
control/ other forms of sex
● “Sex is possible when life is
needed within the borders of
marriage”
● Healthy Youth Act
○ Must include information on
■ Abortion
■ Consent
■ Assault
■ Harassment
● Only state to require sex ed to
be
○ Medically accurate
○ Age-appropriate
○ LGBT-friendly
○ culturally inclusive
A Positive Influence

● How people see themselves ● Delays/Reduces sexual

and their sexuality activity
● Increase value of ○ Frequency
○ Bodily anatomy ○ Number of partners
○ Consent ● Decreases
○ Identifying unhealthy ○ Teen pregnancy
relationships ○ STD rates
○ Contraceptive use ○ Suicide rates
○ Performance in schools ○ Sexual violence
Comprehensive Lower Risk Behavior
Sex Ed

Better Health Better Grades

Graduation rates

89% 51%
Average number of teens to Average number of
graduate pregnant/parenting teens who
graduate
 10%
Number of teens harassed by a SO in a given year
Preventing Sexual Violence
● Women exposed to gender
norms are more likely to
contract STDs/STIs
● Abstinence only ed reinforced
the idea that women are
responsible for preventing
assault
Children
● Can’t describe molestation if
they don’t know what to call
things
○ Think it’s okay unless taught
otherwise
○ Don’t know they have the
right to revoke consent
○ Think they have the right to
violate others
Future of Sex Education (FoSE)

● Launched July 2007

● Seeks to create a national dialogue about the future of
sex ed and to promote the institutionalization of
comprehensive sexuality education into public schools.
LGBT

● 9/10- harassed in the previous year

● ⅔- felt unsafe
● ⅓- skipped at least one day (personal
safety concerns)
Founding
Fathers
Alexander Hamilton
● Reynolds Pamphlet
○ Attempted to
educate the
uneducated through
the experience of his
affair
○ Wished to inform the
people of the truth of
sexuality in his
circumstances
The United States have
never seen a publication of
private sex information until
THE REYNOLDS Tip

PAMPHLET.
Don’t wait till
The first the end of
publication
the presentation to give
of a sex scandal,
the bottom line.
highly taboo as sex
Reveal
wasyour product or
an untalked
idea (in this case a
about topic!
translation app) up front.
John Adams
● “There are two educations.
One should teach us how to
make a living and the other
how to live.”
○ How to live:
■ Sex is a part of life
■ Would agree that
we need to
education the
people to improve
their ability to live
Sources

https://www.whitehousehistory.org/bios/john-adams

https://www.nga.gov/Collection/art-object-page.567.html

https://brainstorms.org/2016/11/19/episode-11-rethinking-sex-ed-with-susan-stiritz-phd/

http://www.futureofsexed.org/about.html

http://www.futureofsexed.org/documents/josh-fose-standards-web.pdf

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs364/en/?scrlybrkr=c37ba816#

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/08/sex-education-requirement-maps_n_5111835.html