“Don’t have sex, or you will get pregnant and die. Just don’t do it. Promise?” Coach Carr says, standing in front of a chalkboard reading “Safe Sex.” A moment later he reaches down, grabbing a plastic box of condoms off the gym floor. “Okay, everybody grab some rubbers.”
This iconic sex ed scene from “Mean Girls” has remained timeless due to its bold humor and catchy one-liners. But like many other movies, songs or books which normalize and romanticize sex, its message has also had a resonating impact on young adult relationship culture. According to a report from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), an estimated 55% of teens have had sex by age 18 and approximately 80% of teens used some form of contraception.
While KHS staff cannot control student decisions outside of school, there is a class designed to help filter out truth from fallacy in the midst of rumors about the birds and bees: Health. Although many students have said they regard the course as a mere box to check off on the way to graduation, the lessons taught are ultimately important to their developing minds.
Craig Dickinson, health and wellness teacher, said the sex ed curriculum in KHS health classes starts with teaching the anatomy of the body in order to give the students a broad overview of what they’ll be learning about. He said this is to help students learn the information and establish a baseline familiarity with the rest of the unit.
“Our health classes are grouped in [grades] nine and 10, then 11 and 12, so [I] sometimes notice a maturity difference between grade levels,” Dickinson said. “It’s a good place to start because as we progress through the unit, I notice people tend to become more comfortable discussing together.”
While teaching everything from STDs to teen pregnancy, Dickinson said the focus of the class is on the physical consequences of being sexually active. Additionally, he said the objective is to make sure students are making responsible choices for themselves.
“Our goal is to give [students] good, medically accurate information with the hopes that [they’ll] make good decisions,” Dickinson said. “The old school way of teaching was to scare kids about sex, but obviously that’s not very effective, so it’s important to separate facts from myths.”
Ashley Moenkhoff, senior, took Health in the second semester of her freshman year, and she said nothing particularly stood out about the sex ed unit. Even though it’s commonly seen only as a required class, she said it is important for students to hear, despite how unremarkable it seems at the moment.
“The curriculum itself is fine,” Moenkhoff said. “I just think a lot of students put it off because [they] feel like it’s the same thing we’ve been hearing since middle school.”
Comparatively, Associate Principal Dr. Mike Gavin said sex ed lessons taught at KHS are essential for students to hear. He said especially as young adults, the content is vital in order for students to practice self-control and be safe.
“Knowledge is power,” Gavin said. “Understanding all things, including your body and how it works, is important [for] making responsible and informed decisions for the future.”
