Something odd that recently came to me and a few other classmates was that in Grade 12, we had not received a single class on sexual education.
Here we are, about to enter colleges, universities and the real world where independence and freedom would become endless, and we had not even brushed up on safe sex in more than a year.
Finding this extremely weird and irritating, we decided to ask a favourite teacher why this was. The realities of government budget cuts and what our administration deemed “less important” suddenly became apparent.
In the past year, school districts across B.C. have seen major changes as the result of government budget cuts. Because of this, School District #83 has made the decision to marginalize the sex ed program.
Although sex ed used to be a few weeks of classes every couple of days each year, it would now be a single day in Grades 9 and 11 for high school students.
I could not believe that despite rises in teen pregnancy and all of the misconceptions surrounding sexual health thanks to the Internet, the program was cut.
Abstinence is promoted greatly in high school, but is ignorant to think all kids will follow that. Students need to be provided with proper, in-depth information about STDs, contraception, and the realities of teen pregnancy. And, in my opinion, one day every other year is not a sufficient amount of time to do that.
Budget cuts hurt everyone in the school district, and they are sometimes unavoidable to the school board.
The real responsibility lies in the B.C. government, who should be focusing on the well-being of students.
We are the future, and it is their job to provide us with the essential tools to make it a good one.
Samantha Schumacher