How Arizona’s sex education classes prepared—and failed—students

In Arizona, only “4% of LGBTQ+ students in Arizona reported receiving LGBTQ+-inclusive sex education at school” according to a state profile by GLSEN, an LGBTQ+ education group. The report also showed that most of the queer-identifying students they identified in Arizona experienced victimization at school, likely due to content restrictions: the group’s report found that in states with more LGBTQ+ restrictions in schools, educators are “discouraged from providing other support for LGBTQ students.”

Across the nation, LGBTQ+ students are often categorized as most at risk for poor mental, physical, and medical health outcomes due to lack of comprehensive sex education. 

And LGBTQ+ high school students who were sexually active were about twice as likely as other students to report becoming pregnant or getting someone pregnant, according to a 2015 study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Implementing a proper curriculum, educators said, can address those issues.  

But the state has been slow on implementing changes that would help students, and instead has tried to increase criminal penalties for teachers if they don't get explicit permission for certain materials—even banning them through vaguely worded laws that would leave it to parents to decide what material is "sexually explicit."

This isn't a new problem, though. Students going back decades told LOOKOUT that their sexual education in Arizona's public and charter schools were sorely lacking, resulting in sexually transmitted infections, an inability to recognize what sexual assault was when they were younger, and fear around sex.

Read our full VOICES series below:

Leaving kids to piece together adult problems

Hear their voice: Kapua Ioane, Tucson, Ariz.

LOOKOUTShelby Rae Wills (they/she)

A rebellious teacher made the difference in teaching safer sex

Hear their voices: Kaylee C. (she/her), Gilbert, Ariz.

LOOKOUTShelby Rae Wills (they/she)

A high school game couldn’t match up to a real-life sexual encounter

Hear her voice: Yesenia Siemens (she/they), Yuma, Ariz.

LOOKOUTShelby Rae Wills (they/she)

A parent’s perspective of Arizona’s sex education: “Absolutely just appallingly inadequate.”

Hear their voices: Gina Griffiths (Phoenix, AZ.) and TV Alford (Mesa, AZ)

LOOKOUTShelby Rae Wills (they/she)

A matter of luck: In a state built off parents’ rights, what happens if caregivers don’t step up?

Hear their voices: Diana Garcia (she/her) Yuma, Ariz.

LOOKOUTShelby Rae Wills (they/she)

Their sex-ed class was considered a “joke,” so they had to go somewhere else.

Hear their voice: Helen Waltz (they/them), Flagstaff, Ariz.

LOOKOUTShelby Rae Wills (they/she)