A 'Joke' Sex-Ed Class Sent Them Looking Elsewhere

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This story is one in a series from our Public Health Accountability Fellowship program, partially funded by Vitalyst Health Foundation.

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This is the final installment of our "VOICES: Sex Ed" series...

For the past two months, we've delivered you first-hand accounts of people across Arizona who have enrolled in school districts' various sex education curriculums and can speak to how it affected them later in life. The stories we've shared with you are damning for state lawmakers who have made sex education complicated and difficult to access, oftentimes passing the buck to parents while HIV and other sexually transmitted infection rates continue to rise in the state above the national average—particularly among young people. Find our full series at the bottom of this newsletter, which includes stories on misinformation kids learned from peers instead of teachers, a rebellious teacher who broke the law to teach proper health education, and a woman's experience on how the education she got never prepared her for an actual sexual assault.  

Helen Waltz's introduction to sex education began in the 4th and 5th grades during summer programs facilitated by the Unitarian Universalist Church, a community their family was part of at the time in northern Arizona.

"The church offered a program called Our Whole Lives, or OWL for short, which provided a comprehensive curriculum during the summer," Waltz explained. This early exposure laid a foundation that would later prove to be more thorough than what their school offered.

In contrast to their early and detailed education through OWL, Waltz’s experience with sex education in their public school was limited, saying there only one class offered their junior year.

“But I opted out because I had already gone through a more comprehensive program," they said.

This decision was also influenced by the perception that the school’s curriculum lacked depth, focusing primarily on basic information that their peers often found redundant: "it became more of a joke class than anything.”

While the OWL program provided Waltz with a structured understanding of consent and healthy relationships, the gaps were filled in by conversations with peers.

"I had a friend who shared her relationship experiences, which helped me understand what felt right or wrong," they recalled.

Despite the benefits of the OWL program, Waltz identifies areas for improvement, particularly regarding gender identity.

"We learned that trans people exist, but I didn't fully understand what that felt like until college," said Waltz, who is nonbinary.

Waltz emphasizes the need for a more in-depth exploration of gender identities beyond basic recognition, supporting education that helps individuals relate to and understand these experiences on a personal level.

Waltz's advice for students receiving little to no sex education in school is pragmatic: "The internet can be very helpful if you find credible sources," they said, and stressed the value of online forums where professionals weigh in and can share insights. However, they caution that the internet, also, is where misinformation spreads about sex.

"Even with comprehensive sex ed, there’s still a cultural barrier where sex is something we don't talk about openly," they said, adding that there needed to be a cultural shift in Arizona toward normalizing these conversations, which could foster a healthier and more accepting environment for everyone.

READ THE FULL VOICES SERIES BELOWHow Arizona’s sex education classes prepared—and failed—students
Former students tell their stories on how the state’s restrictive sex education programs affected their lives and relationships
LOOKOUTShelby Rae Wills (they/she)

        