CUSD Stresses Abstinence Only Sex Ed

In the Chandler Unified School District, students who take the comprehensive health class partake in an abstinence-stressed version of sexual education.

Currently, there is legislation in the state that requires schools to stress abstinence only sexual education in the comprehensive health classes. High schools around the state do not teach the sexual education themselves, but instead bring in an outside group, North Star Youth Partnership.

According to CUSD Instructional Specialist Brenda Vallana, “[North Star] has a grant where they receive abstinence centered money for providing this curriculum to schools.”

North Star goes into schools and teaches a week and a half of ‘Abstinence Training,’ which stresses that abstinence is the only way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

“We talk about [what] abstinence actually is,” Lead Health Education Supervisor of North Star Cristy Leonard says. “And we teach the teenagers goal setting, decision making and the consequences of sex, like pregnancy [and] STDs.”

Many students believe that the sexual education given to them was not sufficient enough to allow them to make safe decisions when it comes to sex.

“[North Star] taught sex as taboo,” Sophomore Tani Hersey says. “High school students do have sex, it’s a thing that’s out there and they need to teach students to actually be healthy and make sex safe.”

Although students are taught about the complicated risks of sex, they are not taught the basics.

Sophomore Bladen Benson says, “[Students] aren’t prepared to have ‘safe sex’ per say because they don’t talk about using condoms or birth control, but it is informative.”

Many students feel they are not being prepared with this education if they choose to have safe sex. Since the program focuses only on abstinence, students are not taught to properly use pregnancy prevention methods.

“We don’t teach teenagers how to put [condoms] on. There is no need to. They can figure it out. Plus that’s the parent’s job,” Leonard says.

“The goal is to provide curriculum in making good choices, avoiding risky behaviors, how to say no; not too much in how to protect yourself,” Vallana says.

The goal of sexual education is to give students the knowledge about life choices, but most importantly how to have safe sex. With our district teaching abstinence-stressed education, many students feel unprepared to have safe sex after sitting through the week and a half of ‘Abstinence Training.’