Despite the appalling amount of funding still being poured into unproven [5], ineffective [6], homophobic [7], sex-negative [8] "abstinence-only" programs, the struggle to ensure young people's access to complete and accurate health information has not been without its victories. Maine, California, and, most recently, New Jersey [9], have all said no to just-say-no sex ed, and in April 2006 the Chicago Public Schools voted without objection to make comprehensive sex ed mandatory for all public schools in the city, in response to an advocacy effort led by youth activists, with support from the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health [10]. Their decision also came in response to some illuminating research conducted by the Illinois Campaign for Responsible Sex Education [11], to wit:
- 66% of Illinois classrooms are not providing students with a comprehensive approach to sex education
- 30% of those teaching sex education in Illinois are not trained to do so, and 30% of trained teachers feel that they had not received enough training.
- 92% of Illinois sex education teachers believe that students, whether or not they are sexually active, should receive accurate information on birth control and safe sex in school.
The Illinois Campaign has followed up their awesome victory with the "Real Teens. Reel Life" video contest [12], encouraging students to tell their own stories about the realities of relationships, influences, and sex ed in their schools and communities. Josh Golden and Sergey Turzhanskiy of Buffalo Grove High school won with an 8-minute short called "Influences [13]," and also cut together a compilation of the winning entries [14]. I'd like to see the congressional champions of "abstinence-only" produce something half as honest...
Editor's note: Watch the compilation of winning entries below [15]. The 8-minute short called "Influences" is below.