Many of us have gone through that awkward stage of our lives. The one when our parents give us “the talk” and lectured us on something we thought we already knew.

Once you have gotten older, you become more aware of the choices and decisions you are making, including sex and the consequences that come with it.

For this reason, CPS schools provide students with a sex education course. During this lesson at BOYCP, a specialist talks to students about everything from the male and female reproductive systems and how they work to how babies are made. How STIs are transmitted and the different methods to prevent them from occurring are discussed. Also, students are provided with many resources that can answer their questions and places they can go to for help.

Advocates For Youth is a nonprofit organization focused on providing youth with a quality sex education. The organization reports that “each year, U.S. teens experience as many as 850,000 pregnancies, and youth under age 25 experience about 9.1 million sexually transmitted infections.” An effective sex education does not necessarily impact how early or how frequent a teen is sexually active, but being aware helps increase the use of protection and decrease teen pregnancies and STIs.

Yet, it is still debatable whether teaching teens about sex is effective. While some students, like sophomore Jessenia Barrera, might argue that, “your kid is going to have sex at one point so might as well be protected”. For this same reason, a BOYCP sophomore who wishes to be not named believes that “schools should distribute condoms.”

There are different mindsets that exist on the topic usually depending on the age of the people in the discussion, but we can agree that the new generation is introducing a less conservative opinion on the topic of sex education. Jennifer can speak for many as she says, “sex is a normal human interaction and nothing to be ashamed to talk about.”

It is important, being at the early stage of adolescence, that teens understand and learn about the many risks that come with sex, in order to prevent teen pregnancy and the chance of getting an STD or STI.

– Citlali Perez