By the time students graduate from an MCPS high school, they will have sat through at least five separate health courses, all of which teach them the dangers of drinking and emphasize the importance of staying sober throughout their high school and college lives. Although these health classes are put in place to keep students from drinking irresponsibly, they ultimately fail to accept the reality of underage drinking in high school and fail to prepare students for the realities of college.

In recent studies it was found that one in every four women will be the victim of a sexual assault during college and 80 percent of those cases are associated with alcohol use. The correlation between the consumption of alcohol and sexual assault has been proven time after time, and with the White House taking action to protect young women from sexual assault, the issue is more prevalent than ever before.

It is understood that MCPS does not want to encourage illegal behavior; however, with the rise in sexual assaults on college campuses, it is important that MCPS reevaluates high school health class curriculum and makes a more receptive program that recognizes the fact that nearly three quarters of students will have consumed alcohol by the time they are out of high school.

Instead of putting all of the focus on abstinence from alcohol, health classes should have a unit in which they teach safe drinking practices. During this time, not only would students learn the effects of mixing different alcohols and drugs and recieve tips on how to stay safe at parties, but also include a day in which the body mass index (BMI) of each student is taken and each individual is given a rough estimate as to how many drinks he or she can consume before putting him or herself at a serious risk. Much of the problem lies in young people not knowing their limits and a new curriculum would allow them to discover that limit before it is too late.

In a new curriculum, however, it is also incredibly important that the students see the connection between alcohol and rape on college campuses. More often than not, when students think of drinking, they do not suspect something as horrifying as rape to happen to them. Seeing that 25 percent of the females in the graduating Class of 2014 will most likely be sexually assaulted within the next four years, MCPS needs to do all that it can to demonstrate the very real link between heavy drinking and sexual assault. It is not going to be easy to reduce the number of sexual assaults on college campuses, as alcohol is only one of the many factors involved; however, it is critical that MCPS takes the first step of accepting and addressing the prevalence of underage drinking among students before any significant changes can be made.