Health and sex ed in southeast Iowa

While focus on sexual education often centers around intercourse and pregnancy, sex ed teachers in southeast Iowa note that there's so much more to their classes.

Iowa is one of only 24 states across the country that mandates K-12 sexual education. According to Iowa Code, the unit must be medically accurate and culturally appropriate and unbiased. However, language of the code does not prevent the promotion of religion and students also have the option to opt out of the class.

For most southeast Iowa districts, this mandatory unit is taught to students in middle school.

Jared Henry, the health teacher at Washington Middle School, explained he teaches his weeklong class to seventh-graders. During the week, students research contraception methods and how they work, as well as learn about sexually transmitted infections. Henry said he feels it's important to begin discussions early to empower students with knowledge.

'I feel like it is important to talk about because, although we hope it's still many years down the road before they are engaging in sexual activity, and that many students will stay abstinent, that is not always the case these days anymore. So getting these students the information early about several ways to prevent pregnancy and STIs, if they decide abstinence is not for them, can help them avoid an accidental pregnancy or spread of disease and infections,” he said.

Beyond the required class, public high schools are only mandated to offer a health and sexual education class.

Erin Wagler, an exercise science and health teacher at Mt. Pleasant High School, said the class if offered to students as an elective and have the option to take it if they so choose. Wagler said there are two semesters of health. Health 1 covers sex ed and students who may not want to participate in that particular part of the curriculum usually choose not to take that semester of the class.

'Health 1, we start with all the systems of the body and we focus on what to do as you progress through life to maintain your health,” Wagler said. It also includes what students should do to build their skeletons to avoid health issues down the line. In her class, Wagler also teaches important self exams like testicular and breast exams.

'After that, we talk about sexually transmitted infections and methods of contraceptives. And an important part of it is self-advocacy skills, so how to advocate for themselves. So they're doing what they want, not what other people want them to do,” Wagler said, 'The consent issue, that's another thing we talk about quite a bit in health.”

The health teacher noted she ranges from about 75 to 90 students every semester who take her class.

Before making health class an elective available to students in the Fall of 2008, Mt. Pleasant High School taught the unit across four years in physical education.

'That model didn't really meet the needs of our students. [Health] is a class that we started because we felt a need for it,” Wagler said.

Wagler said it's more beneficial to students to have a classroom culture focused on health rather than spread out across various classes.

'I think it's an important class because it's about their body, which they'll have for the rest of their life. And they can make a decision at a young age that unfortunately can affect you for the rest of your life. So we hope they make good decisions and sometimes they don't know what the good decisions are,” Wagler said.

The health teacher notes many students often say the class covers issues and topics they have never considered before.

'Like when we talk about STIs, I ask them what they know about it and a lot of times they don't know much and what they do know is inaccurate,” she said.

Wagler added students often learn about STIs and other health issues through friends, which lends to a lot of misinformation about how to best protect themselves.

'They just know what they've heard on the street,” Mt. Pleasant High School Principal Todd Leichty added.

Leichty also said he felt it's important for students to be taking health classes but making the class mandatory for students often leads to varying views on how best to discuss contraceptives.

'Yes, it should be required for every student but we also have to be respectful of parent choice. The whole contraceptive thing is a touchy issue and parents want to handle that. To me that would be the biggest issue. If it weren't for that issue, yes, I think it should be mandatory,” Leichty said.