The Republican party’s platform on sex education is caught in a 1920s time warp.
The Republican party is running on a platform that would establish same-sex classrooms and an abstinence curriculum in efforts to reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
Before televisions were invented, police officers were canvassing beaches with rulers and measuring the length of women’s bathing suits, which was enough to tame youth and their sexual behaviors. However, with the advancement of technology, these dated practices are not enough. Republican lawmakers are not in tune with the needs of today’s students, who are being raised in an era of ever-evolving technology.
The proposed policies attempt to sweep the real issues under the rug and pretend that youth are not having sex. News flash: Teens are having sex! We live in a society where children are connected to a multitude of electronic devices and have access to the world at their fingertips.
Children can utilize apps such as Kik, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube and Whisper and are able to access information beyond what they would be exposed to in any classroom. Children are curious and will attempt to mimic what they see on the internet.
Instead of trying to hide these facts from them, we need to incorporate and adapt our sex education curriculum to the needs of these generations. We cannot put the genie back in the bottle, so we need to start addressing the issues that are affecting youth such as peer pressure, cyberbullying, sexting, child pornography, dating violence, irresponsible use of technology and unsafe sex practices.
And who better to speak up than other youths who were in their shoes only a few years ago: college students. As college students, it is our job to use experience and acquired knowledge, to apply our college educations and become mentors, educators and advocates of the new movements affecting younger generations.
Many programs in southern California give college students opportunities to become active mentors through partnerships, community service opportunities, college readiness programs and nonprofit organizations. This mentorship can provide a critical guidance for many youth who are facing such dangers in silence.
The key word here is education! Any field of expertise is now driven by evidence-based research and practice. This means everyone needs to educate themselves, do research and share factual information.
There’s also a lot of finger-pointing over who is responsible for youth’s misuse of technology – parents, schools or the youths themselves. The answer is all those involved! We have to educate all entities on how to make this world less dangerous for our youth.
Lastly, as activists, we ask you to advocate for what’s right. Speak up through your own social media or other means. Small efforts from everyone can become a big deal for those who look up to us for future aspirations, not past ideologies.
These are real issues affecting our average youth, and placing them in same-sex classrooms or replacing sex education with abstinence courses will not make these issues vanish. Get involved!
Orfanelli Ambriz, Natalia Cano, Marilyn Casillas, Graciela Macias and Monica Ortega are rising fourth-year social work students.
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