Student Opinions WINTER 2016 11

Comprehensive Sex Education: a Heated Debate hand-
KATHRYN SILBERSTEIN
SENIOR EDITOR
With Virtues Class in Lower
School, and Life Skills in Middle and High
School, the students at Saint Andrews
are educated on health and well-being
throughout their school careers. Saint
Andrews markets itself as dedicated to
nurturing each student in mind, body, and
spirit. However, in the area of body,
the school might be missing the mark by
a few body parts by omitting comprehen-
sive Sex Education from the curriculum.
Sexual Education has been a
nationwide, heated debate for decades.
In fact, according to IssueLab: a service
of Foundation Center, Since the early
1980s, Congress has devoted significant
resources to abstinence-only program-
ming. While abstinence-plus program-
ming promotes the benefits of abstinence
while teaching contraceptive and dis-
ease-preventing methods, abstinence-
only curricula teach total abstinence as
the only option for unmarried people.
A 2007 federally funded evalu-
ation of Title V Abstinence-Only-Until-
Marriage programs, conducted by Math-
ematica Policy Research Inc., found
no evidence that these programs in-
creased rates of sexual abstinence
the essential goal of these programs.
On the other hand, according to
the Sexuality Information and Education
Council of the United States, comprehen-
sive sexuality education is an effective
strategy to help young people de-
lay their initiation of sexual inter
course and can reduce the number of
sexual partners and in-
crease contraceptive use.
As a young person trying to
navigate sensitive, precarious issues in
my own life, I would rather be educat-
ed according to the latter option: meth-
ods that have been proven effective by
peer-reviewed research and literature.
I want to be able to feel like my school
is providing a space where my under-
standing can stretch and augment itself.
By not talking about sex in
an educational way, the school implic-
itly tells students that we cant talk
about sex in an educational way, in-
stead conveying to its student body that
sex is still a dirty word that shouldnt
be audibly uttered on school grounds.
A conversation about sex, in or
outside the classroom, is going to be un
comfortable, but its also entirely necessary
in school. There are conversations that go
be riddled with cruel jokes, insensitiv-
i n -
hand
with
s e x
edu-
cation
that
should be happening. When we dont talk
about sex in the classroom, we elimi-
nate the chance to have any genuine
discussion about what sexuality really
means, what the different sexualities
are, and why none of them are incorrect.
If were not talking about sex
in the classroom, were not talking about
consent in the classroom. As the issues of
date rape and sexual assault comes into the
spotlight of pop culture more and more,
our school should be charged with educat-
ing its students on what consent is, why
its important, and what actually differ-
entiates consensual and unconsented sex.
By not facilitating those impor-
tant conversations in a safe classroom
environment, the school sets students
up to have them instead amongst their
friends, and for those conversations to
ity, and a lack of genuine understanding.
Im not asking for a bin of condoms
in the Student Life Office that students can
take from at their leisure, or for excessively
graphic videos included in the Life Skills
curriculum. Im asking that the school rec-
ognize that sex and sexuality are pertinent
issues in nearly all of its students lives.
Right now, the Florida State
Laws on Sex Education are antiquated at
best; they mandate that all public schools
promote abstinence from sexual activ-
ity outside of marriage as the expected
standard for all school-age students while
teaching the benefits of monogamous
heterosexual marriage. This year, legisla-
tion calling for more comprehensive sex
education in public schools failed to pass.
However, according to the Sexu-
ality Information and Education Council of
the United States, the Episcopal Church is
among the religious denominations that sup-
ports comprehensive sexuality education.
The Episcopal Churchs 1988
General Convention emphasized strong
support to responsible local public and
private school programs of education in
human sexuality. Furthermore, in 2008,
the Episcopal Church, responding to the
proposed REAL (Responsible Education
About Life) Act, commented that sup-
port for responsible sex education in our
schools is more important than ever.
Saint Andrews, as a private,
Episcopal institution, has the opportuni-
tyand maybe even the responsibilityto
do what government-funded schools can-
not, to pioneer a progressive movement
in our states educational system, and
be the beacon of forward-thinking and
modern education that it promises to be.

PROFESSORS REACT THE POLITICAL

TO TRUMPS WIN
ANDREW CLOW
STAFF WRITER
We wont be able to teach math if [stu-
dents] feel scared and if they feel like
they are at risk, said a New York City
private school administrator to PBS New-
shour. After Donald Trump was named
President-Elect, reports claimed that some
teachers and professors decided to cancel,
postpone, or make optional their exams.
At Yale University, an econom-
ics professor decided to make his or her
exam optional after getting so many
heartfelt notes from students who are
in shock over the election results. The
professor then notes that the ones I find
most upsetting are those who fear, right-
ly or wrongly, for their own families.
Students at Cornell Univer-
sity held a cry-in for those in fear after
the election. Some classes at Iowa State
University, Rochester University, and
University of Connecticut simply can-
celled classes the day after the election.
University of Michigan students participat-
ed in a candlelight vigil in the schools library
where the universitys president addressed
students saying, Ninety percent of you
rejected the kind of hate and the fractious-
ness and the longing for some sort of ide-
alized version of a nonexistent yesterday.
I voted for Hillary Clinton, yet I
am surprised by these particular educators
who felt that Trumps election warranted
such a reaction. I certainly take no issue with
teachers who want to comfort their students
ECHOCHAMBER
AN EDITORICAL CARTOON
BY ALEXIS BARRETT
STAFF WRITER
who have very real fears, such as the depor-
tation of their families or a loss of health
care. However, I do find it wrong for teach-
ers and professors to imply that there was
a right or wrong outcome for the election.
The purpose of educational in-
stitutions, private or public, is to pres-
ent facts and teach students to formu-
late well-constructed ideas of their own,
not to push ones opinions onto stu-
dents or imply ones opinions as fact.
I have no doubt that these teach-
ers and professors are doing what they
think is right, and there is an argument for
the unique situation of Donald Trumps
lack of temperament and experience.
However, I also fear that some educators
may have missed the opportunity to have
meaningful conversations or debates in
the classroom about the electoral col-
lege, the peaceful transition of power,
or the general outcome of the election.
It would be a different story if
Clinton had won the election. Would stu-
dents be exempt from exams if they feared
that their religiously affiliated school
would be shut down for not complying
with gender and sexual identity directives?
Now more than ever, we need edu-
cators to help mend the division in the coun-
try. My hope going forward is that teachers
look to see if their own opinions are twist-
ing a knife in the wounds they hope to heal.

Editorial Policy: The opinions expressed in this issue of the Saint Andrews School Bagpiper reflect those of individual staff writers and in no way reflect the views of the fac-
ulty, advisor, administration, or the Saint Andrews community. The Bagpiper welcomes letters to the editor about any issues concerning Saint Andrews School and/or the school
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