Sexual education has come to be taboo. With the decrease in sexual education in higher grade levels, there seems to be an increase in teen pregnancies. The rate of teen pregnancy is higher in the United States than in other “western industrialized countries,” the CDC reports on their website. In 2020, seventeen point four percent of girls ages fifteen to nineteen became pregnant. Many of them will be faced with uncertainty as they lack resources and education. The main reason that these girls in the United States have become pregnant is because they lack proper education at school. This generation has been failed by the school system to teach sexual education and has had to rely on what they hear from others and the internet. A study done by the researchers at The University of Washington demonstrates  that “adolescents who receive comprehensive sex education are significantly less likely to become pregnant than adolescents who receive no formal sex education.” There is not much time dedicated to sex education in school systems. It is said that ages kindergarten through twelfth grade are required. However, many times the education is never received at an age that is old enough to understand. Being in the Iredell-Statesville School system my whole life, there was never a time other than in the fourth grade where sexual education was taught.

Sexual education should NOT be optional and should be required for grades 9-12 to learn, even if it is just one course. The North Carolina requirement for sexual education promotes abstinence. This decision is not to based off of politics or religion, but what will be accomplished based on research. The removal of promoting abstinence and teaching about preventable risks for subsequent pregnancies is one of the goals. The addition of consent, birth control options, and where to get materials for safer sex is another goal for the NC standard health curriculum. These also need to be ENFORCED within lesson plans. 

Sign this petition if you agree that the NC state sexual education health curriculum should be changed and properly enforced to prevent teen pregnancy.