Where do most kids get their information regarding sex and STDs? If you ask one group of Boston teenagers, it’s porn—and they’re trying to change that.
The high school students hail from Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, one of the highest-risk areas for teen Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and pregnancies in the city. To attract attention to the surging infection rates, the teens produced a documentary tackling their peers’ views on sex. The video notes that while most teenagers between 15 and 19 are having sex, many of those same teens learn about sex primarily through porn.
The teens worked in conjunction with the Hyde Street Task Force, a local community-organizing group. The video was part of a campaign to institute a comprehensive—meaning more than “abstinence-only”—sex-education program reaching kids of all ages in Boston city schools. According to the documentary, the public school system lacks standardized sex education classes. The students demand not only a thorough examination of all aspects of sexuality, including gender identity, but also access to condoms through school nurses, according to The Boston Globe.
The video aimed to attract the attention of not just their peers, but also the city council. They approached one city councilor Ayanna Presley, who advocated strongly on their behalf, and in February they managed to secure an audience before the entire council in a two-and-a-half hour session.
Despite the progress, the city council’s decision is still up in the air.
The students face plenty of opposition. One local Catholic group, Pure of Heart, campaigns against condom distribution, citing religious and moral objections. This, despite students admitting that easier access would make them more likely to use protection. Merlin Castillo, a junior at the area’s Milton Academy and an advocate for sex education reform, explains:
Well, first of all, in CVS, they have them behind a bin and it’s locked. So you have to go through the shameful process of asking someone if I can please have a condom. If there are people around, if there’s anyone that you know around, it’s very awkward to have to be like ‘hey, can you open this so I can buy a condom?
“When things are hard to get, it’s easier just to not get them,” said Samantha Brea, another Boston teen. “That’s how teenagers sort of look at it. Like, if it’s going to be going through that shameful process, then I might as well not use it.”
Castillo’s right, this should be a mind-numbingly simple debate—abstinence-only lessons hide critical information from students and defy all logic. The consequences of teenage sex are a national problem, and one that deserves a real solution grounded in reality. Teens are going to have sex regardless of what teachers tell them, but what teachers can do is provide them information on how to do so safely. Abstinence-only education is presented as a viable alternative to a reality-based approach to sexual discussion—despite studies that have shown their methods to be ineffective.
As encouraging as it is to see students take an active role in their education, it’s frustrating that this is still considered a legitimate debate. Students in Boston may be making process, but the North Dakota legislature just passed a law designed to prevent teachers from discussing contraception in class. Until we actually take the documentary’s advice and address the problems at their root in the classroom, students will continue to learn more about sex from porn than from their teachers.
