A group of middle-school girls in the South Bronx, tired of the lack of a comprehensive sex-ed curriculum (or, apparently, *any* sex-ed curriculum, since parental pressure has meant the school isn’t even implementing the state-required program), are taking matters into their own hands:
Teach us about the birds and the bees!
That’s the overture from 10 seventh-grade girls at PS 218 in the South Bronx who say they’re tired of relying on raunchy music videos, squeamish parents and uninformed peers to get the straight dope on sex.
Though just 12 and 13 years old, the girls insist their school is failing to meet its mission of “empowering students with purposeful education” because it does not offer sex education – and they’re petitioning to get it.
“The only sex education we have is music videos, the Internet and books because our parents don’t talk about it with us and we don’t get it in school,” said Ashley Reyes, 13, who with her friends collected 206 signatures from classmates and peers.
These girls aren’t blind. They look around their neighborhood and see the toll that lack of information and discussion of sex has taken:
These girls live in a borough where, according to the city Health Department, 12.8 percent of teenage girls become pregnant. Five of the 10 girls said they know a teenager who got pregnant.
“Kids think they know about sex but they really don’t,” said Yanilsa Frias, 13. “They feel pressured by their peers.”
New York state law requires health education be taught, and that it include HIV/AIDS prevention. These girls are claiming (though the school had no comment) that parental squeamishness about sex has prevented even this required information from being taught. There’s no requirement for teaching about sexuality, which means that sometimes it’s taught, sometimes it’s not, and sometimes, the dreaded abstinence-only sex ed is offered.
But these girls, though young, see right through abstinence-only sex ed.
The state spends about $12 million a year – most of it in federal funds – on abstinence-only programs. Meanwhile, a bill gaining traction in Albany called the Healthy Teens Act would create a funding stream for comprehensive sex ed.
Katherine George, 13, who helped write the petition in an after-school program run by the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corp. (WHEDCo), said “abstinence only” lessons just don’t cut it.
“Teaching kids abstinence makes them more intrigued,” George said. “Your mom can tell you, ‘Don’t take a cookie from the cookie jar,’ but you still want the cookie.”
The good news from all this is not only the Healthy Teens Act gaining traction, but the City Department of Education is in the process of revising its health education guidelines to include a sex-ed component.
And, of course, there are a bunch of smart, activist girls in the Bronx standing up and demanding knowledge.
Via Broadsheet.
Similar Posts:
- So, How’s That Abstinence-Only Thing Working Out For Ya? by zuzu August 17, 2006
- Should parents be allowed to sit in on sex ed classes? by Jill May 29, 2005
- Thy Virginity Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks. by Ryan July 3, 2005
- Take Issue, Take Charge by Lauren September 21, 2005
- No Sex For You! by zuzu April 17, 2006
From the mouths of babes.
When I’m a parent, I promise I will try really hard not to force my offspring into a perpetual state of childhood, but recognize that they will grow up, and my job is to help them grow up right.
Refusing to be uninformed rocks.
Now this is activism! Right on!
Sadly, I bet some of these girls get disenrolled from this program by the squeemish parents saying the program is exerting undue influence on their daughters.
Egad, 7th grade girls thinking about sex, demanding sex education, having the independence to see past the shallow pop culture bullshit about sex!
Quick someone call the Dobster, this won’t stand!
Ignorant under the protective wing of self-righteous religion is where these girls belong.
Whatever you do, don’t tell the Derbster.
“Teaching kids abstinence makes them more intrigued,” George said. “Your mom can tell you, ‘Don’t take a cookie from the cookie jar,’ but you still want the cookie.”
I’ve been trying to live without sex lately because it seems the only people who want to fuck me also want to fuck me over. So I *know* it’s for my own good, but I still sigh for sex. Anyone who thinks you can stop people being tempted by telling them it’s baaaaaad is delusional.
With a name like that, I was expecting a program to inject syphilis into middleschooler’s eyeballs.
Where do I go to send them money or letters about how awesome they are?
I wonder why some group, maybe Planned Parenthood or a state department of education in a state that isn’t intimidated by the “abstinance only” crowd, doesn’t just make a sex education course for each grade available over the internet.
I hope my daughter grows into a girl like that.
I worked hard against pressure to do otherwise, to teach my three children, in particular my two girls, the ins and outs of sexual behavior, activity, its results and the social incongruencies that abound around it.
I have to laugh, when I think of old times. I have a very large personal library full of books I pick up everywhere. One book, “Sexual Satisfaction in Marriage” or something like that, a rather thick volume was absconded from my library. I was amused to find it tucked under my fourteen year old’s bed once when doing a mandatory forced ‘clean-out’.
Of course, all things can fail. My fifteen year old daughter became pregnant, unbeknownst to me when she was placed out of the house for awhile during a particular rough period. Through much wrangling I learned that she demanded that the boarding placement provide the means for her to obtain an abortion and threatened suit if they told me about it. She petitioned resources for funding it on her own and even though I finally had to be informed in order to transport her, she knew well enough the importance of such a procedure and felt empowered enough to demand that a crowd of adults bend to her will!
Now although the situation was distressing, her activism on her behalf was enough to make this feminist mom just a bit proud.