by Mandy Stussman ’14

Forty-seven percent of teens in the United States have sex before leaving high school, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance of 2011. Likewise, about seven percent of teens on average become pregnant. Teens are having sex. They get pregnant. We can look the other way, pretend it’s not true all we want. But the data is there. Reality cannot be ignored.

In my health class, during the Family Life and Human Sexuality unit, a student inquired about abortion out of curiosity. My teacher’s face flushed and told us she was required by the school board not to talk about it. She was forbidden to even utter the word. Regardless of personal opinions, abortion is a real, legal option. Information is information. How can the school deny students the right to knowledge and answers? They wish to keep us in a cloud of ignorance, safe from that nasty, evil word. That forbidden word. Pretend all teens are abstinent. Pretend the truth does not exist.