Abby's Inklings: Help kids learn sex ed.

By Abby Cowels (She/Her)
Staff Writer

More and more states are restricting their laws around sex education. Some of them are placing new restrictions on what is taught; others are barring sex education for sixth grade and below.

States have been quietly chipping away at laws around sex education for the last five years.

Lack of nuance, coupled with misinformation, has re-stigmatized the importance of this type of education. Conservatives are emphasizing that sex education is inappropriate, and pushes children to claim a specific sexual orientation, which is just not true.

Sex education covers more topics than just those around intercourse or reproduction. Mainly, for elementary school age children, sex education focuses intently on teaching them that if they have found that inappropriate behavior is targeted toward them or others, they should confide in a trusted adult.

The Teaching Boundaries and Safety Guide is a part of a typical sex-ed curriculum. It covers important topics such as, what boundaries are, safe vs. unsafe behaviors, who is your safe person? And what to do if those boundaries are violated.

These standards are set in place to educate children and further help them, and others to stay safe.

When resources as important as these are limited, we are limiting the knowledge that could help them navigate through crisis, and possibly prevent these situations from ever happening.

Currently within the U.S. eight states, out of the 39 that have mandated sex education, have banned sixth grade and below sex education. Five other states with the mandate (Mississippi, Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana) exclusively teach “abstinence only” sex education.

Unfortunately, comprehensive sex education is not mandated across the states. And there will always be partisan approaches taken toward the decisions around what should, and should not be taught, to what age of child.

There are outside resources available when it comes to teaching age-appropriate sex education. Comprehensive sex education is a human right. So keep yourself, your kids, and your brothers and sisters safe by taking some responsibility around sex education, because we cannot always trust others to do so.