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Information for Sexuality Educators
Your role as a sexuality educator can be challenging and rewarding. As an educator, you are responsible for not only providing comprehensive information to your students, but also for managing the emotional and personal responses your students, fellow staff members, school administrators, parents, and people in the local community may have.
Different kinds of sexuality education
A variety of sexuality education curricula exist, each with its own focus and guiding parameters.
- Comprehensive sexuality education curricula generally cover anatomy, physiology, contraception, emergency contraception, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), safer sexual behavior, relationships, and abstinence.
- Abstinence-based curricula generally focus on abstinence as the number one way to prevent pregnancy and STDs. Little time is dedicated to contraception, condoms, safer sex, or STDs.
- Abstinence-only curricula focus on abstinence and do not discuss contraception or safer sex.
- Fear-based curricula generally use scare tactics as the major strategy for encouraging abstinence from sexual behavior before marriage. Contraceptive information is omitted, and students are required to consider only the negative consequences of sexual activity.
Increasing parent involvement
Research consistently shows parent-child connectedness to be related to teen sexual health. Teens who are closer to their parents and have frequent communications about safer sex are more likely to remain sexually abstinent, postpone intercourse, have fewer sexual partners, and use contraceptives more consistently than their peers who are not close with their parents. Because parent involvement is shown to have such positive effects on teen sexual health, it is important for educators to involve parents in their children's sex education.
One good way of doing this is to develop a parent consent form that emphasizes the importance of parent communication and involvement. Good parental consent forms include the following components:
- Suggestions for starting a conversation with their children. For example: "Your teacher sent home this form that says it is important for me to talk to you about sexually transmitted diseases."
- Encouraging messages for parents. Use this consent form as a conversation starter. For example: "Your teacher sent home a consent form for your unit on sex education. Do you have any questions you want to ask me before you go into class?"
- Inclusion of the CDC's sexually transmitted disease fact sheet (available at http://www.cdc.gov).
- The attachment of resources and links to further information about STDs for both parents and their children.
- Information about the materials to be covered, as well as contact information for the educator so parents can call, email, or make appointments to discuss questions or concerns.
Responding to controversy
Developing and implementing sexuality education can be a stressful experience—both because it can be difficult to discuss sensitive topics with students and because community members, other school staff members, or parents may be uneasy with some or all of the program. To best prepare a response, educators should:
- Expect controversy. There are almost always two sides to an issue. Not everyone will be excited about your program.
- Be pro-active. Share the program goals, protocols, and activities with the community.
- Make it clear that you're a person, not a program. You are an educator and a person. Make it clear that while you understand your opponents' objections to the program, they should not attack you.
- Be honest and reasonable. Listen to concerns and address them with research-based facts. Have materials (such as fact sheets or research reports) to support your information and program.
Guidelines for handling disclosures of or concerns
about sexual abuse
As a sexual health educator, you need to be sensitive to the fact that it is statistically probable one or more of your students is or has been the victim of sexual abuse. Boys or girls who have been victims of sexual abuse will hear discussions about sexuality differently than other teens. For them, sex may not have been a pleasurable event, and negotiating safer sex is almost always impossible. Sometimes, open discussions of sexuality will lead a student to disclose abuse to the educator or an entire class. To handle a disclosure most effectively, educators should:
- Be familiar with child sexual abuse and the frequency with which it occurs;
- Know pertinent State laws and school or agency policies about reporting child sexual abuse;
- Know who you need to consult in your school or agency if a youth makes a disclosure (usually a vice principal, principal, counselor, or school nurse);
- Keep the phone number to the local Child Protective Services (CPS) accessible so you can report the abuse in an expedient manner. Calling (800) 562-5624 will put you in touch with a national service that can provide you with the number to your local CPS office;
- Be familiar with the reporting form and time requirements so you can make a complete report easily.
Reports of child abuse and neglect can be made in person, in writing, or by telephone. Persons who report in good faith are protected from liability arising from their actions. Reports are kept confidential and may be made anonymously.
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