Write the Pinellas School Board: When sex education is not comprehensive, teens pay the price.

Pinellas youth have the right to lead healthy lives. They need sex education that is honest, complete, and accurate.

Quality sex education includes information about sex, sexuality, relationships, contraception and condoms, and how to protect yourself and plan your future. Sex education programs need to be informed by evidence as well as include all the information and skills young people need to make healthy decisions. Providing young people with the skills and tools to make healthy decisions about sex and relationships is far more effective than denying them information and simply telling them not to have sex.

Send a message now to the Pinellas County Board of Education urging implementation of comprehensive sex ed in our schools.

Dear Board Member:

I am a concerned community member living in Pinellas County and would like to voice my support for comprehensive sex education in Pinellas County classrooms.  For the past three years, sexually transmitted disease rates have been higher among teens in our county than the state average.  New HIV infection rates are up 22% in 13 to 24 year olds and three in ten teen girls will get pregnant before they turn 20.  One way to help teens make healthy choices is by offering inclusive, medically-accurate, evidence-based, and developmentally-appropriate sex education in our schools.

I want all students to have the opportunity to learn valuable skills and topics like healthy relationships, communication, and consent to prepare them for adulthood.  All kids should feel safe, valued, and empowered in our schools. This should include students with disabilities many of whom are currently exempt from being offered any sex education classes in Pinellas County. This is troublesome given that adolescents with intellectual disabilities are seven times more likely to be a victim of sexual assault or violence.

Research shows that comprehensive sex education, which includes promoting abstinence, works!  Luckily, 75% of Pinellas County residents agree, according to the 2018 Pinellas County Community Health Assessment performed by the Department of Health. Eighty percent in the same survey supported comprehensive sex education being taught starting at age 13.

As a member of our Pinellas County School Board, please consider comprehensive sex education as an effective way to keep our kids safe and healthy.

Thank you for working on behalf of our kids and community.

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By providing my contact information, I consent to have Empowering Pinellas Youth Collaborative (EPYC) contact me with information about this and future campaigns.