The Appalachian Peace and Justice Network is currently working with the Athens City School District to create a comprehensive sexual health education.
There is no nationwide curriculum for sexual education, making it so that one Ohio University freshmen may have learned safe sex practices while another may have learned abstinence as his or her only option.
Although there are some school districts in Ohio that choose to bring in a speaker to address sexual education in more depth, Bryan Stringer, a freshman studying history and art history, said that method was not very effective in his hometown in Avon.
“She just told us sex was bad,” Stringer said. “There was more of a focus on abstinence than safe sex.”
More locally, the Athens City School District first introduces students to “sex ed” in same-sex groups before the end of fifth grade and then requires students to take a health class in middle and high school, according to Athens City School District Superintendent Thomas Gibbs.
Athens City School District is just one of many districts that OU students might come from, with each district possibly writing its own curriculum.
In 19 states it is required that provided sex education must be medically or factually accurate, and in 35 states, parents can opt out of sexual education on behalf of their children entirely, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures website.
In Ohio, sexual education is required to cover teen dating violence, sexual harassment and sexual assault prevention, Gibbs said. It is up to the school district to determine what else it is going to cover and when.
Sarah Fick is the program coordinator for the Sexual Assault Prevention program at the Appalachian Peace and Justice Network, which is currently working with the Athens City School District to create a comprehensive sexual health education.
Progress with the Athens City School District has been slow because the administration is worried about the reaction from parents, Fick said.
“The administration fears backlash from the religious right around sexual-health education,” Fick said. “We operate on doing what is right, even if it is not what's popular. And we’re not even sure that comprehensive sexual-health education is even unpopular among the parents."
Fick said part of past issues stemmed from working with the old administration.
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“Working with Athens City School District has been challenging,” Fick said. “The old superintendent was very hands off and negligent in his handling of some very serious accusations.”
Last year, the previous superintendent, Carl Martin, was accused of failing multiple times to report a former social studies teacher for having sexual relationships with students, according to previous Post reports.
Martin later retired after being placed on paid administrative leave.
The Athens City School District is not updating its programs in response to those incidents, Gibbs said.
Fick said the new administration may prove helpful in efforts to reform the area's sexual education.
“I believe the new superintendent wants to do the right thing, but he is very by the books as far as who and what he will allow in his school,” Fick said.
Updates will make sure the district is properly incorporating the changes in state law throughout the years that address health-related topics, Gibbs said.
“Our curricula is more closely tied to a greater emphasis on sexual assault and sexual assault prevention on college campuses, especially with Ohio University and Hocking College at our back door,” Gibbs said.
Along with improving education, Fick hopes to decrease the stigma and taboo surrounding relationships and sexual anatomy so that children feel comfortable asking questions or voicing their concerns about how they are being treated.
Sexual education consisted of a basic health class in middle school and another class in high school for Kira Hall, a freshman studying English. Hall is from Ashtabula County, she said.
“In high school, they talked a little bit about STDs and contraceptive methods but also a lot of slut shaming,” Hall said. Her school also focused on abstinence over safe sex.
Schools commonly use the "piece of tape" analogy to show the negative effects of not staying abstinent. Hall said they used that method at her high school.
The "piece of tape" analogy is a demonstration that requires one student to stick his or her piece of tape to multiple classmates, Hall said. After doing so, the class is told to observe how the tape loses its bonding power after being stuck to different people. The class is also told that a person who has had sex with multiple partners has lost their ability to emotionally bond in future relationships.
“When you’re in school you trust what teachers say — that what they tell you is right,” Hall said.
Haven and Not Anymore, programs both used by OU, cover aspects of sex education for incoming freshmen, like consent, sexual harassment and assault, but they do not completely cover contraceptives, sexually transmitted diseases and abstinence as a choice.
“It’s great talking about what consent means and educating people about rape culture and how you can be better bystanders, but I don’t think I’m learning what actual sexual transmitted diseases are in order to better protect myself,” Hall said.
@KyraCobbie
kc036114@ohio.edu
