Sex education initiatives stalled during COVID-19

Efforts to provide comprehensive, inclusive and medically accurate sex education have almost completely halted in the U.S. due to COVID-19.

Before COVD-19, many reproductive health organizations were passionately pursuing the improvement of sex education in New York. The Sex Education Alliance of New York City was born about a decade ago to track data on the efficacy of current sex education, and in 2017, the Sexual Health Education Taskforce was born under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration to review sex education curriculum recommended by the New York City Department of Education and ensure its implementation. 

With so many efforts to push for K-12 sex education, 8 bills that would improve sex education curriulum were finally introduced to the state Senate and the Assembly. However, due to COVID-19 ravaging communities, especially New York City, sex education legislation came to an abrupt halt to focus on pandemic relief initiatives. 

Additionally, with schools transitioning over to remote instruction, sex education was ultimately severely reduced. Alongside New York City’s struggle to ensure every student has access to a tablet or working Wi-Fi, sex education professionals also struggled with keeping students engaged after hours on Zoom.

While online sex ed can be tough, there are some benefits, according to Abigail Soule, program coordinator of health education at the Center for Community Alternatives. “You can reach people on a much larger scale than you could in a classroom and there’s an interface with videos that we could have before.”

However, there are still challenges to the online education world.

“A huge part of teaching sex ed is building trust with your students so that you’re able to have honest conversations with them about sexuality. This is incredibly hard to do over zoom” Soule told NYN Media. “There’s no rapport, there’s no staying after class to ask questions, it’s just sticking to the PowerPoint and a lot of blank screens. You can still find those young people who are willing to step out of their comfort zones and speak honestly and ask questions, but it’s been much harder to create that space online”.

Right now, a New York state mandate requires that schools only teach HIV/AIDS prevention instruction, any other subjects within the realm of sex education is left up to the school districts. Curriculum is not required to include consent, sexual orientation or gender identity as it is not required to be comprehensive. Furthermore, parents are allowed to “opt out” or refuse HIV/AIDS instruction for their children.

Teaching sex education virtually may not have been as successful, but with wider access to online spaces comes online support. Advocates for Youth has a free online database of sex education curriculum and Planned Parenthood has a sex ed site youth can scroll through for more information. Social media initiatives have also been trending, with some famous TikTokers using their platforms to educate young people. 

“While the online sex ed world absolutely has its limits, I think it’s also opened doors for creative ways to approach how we share this work,” said Soule. “This is a great option for people who don’t have sex ed in their schools, don’t have representation in their lives and want accurate information. It’s out there, you just have to know which courses are reliable.” 

While sex education may have slowed down during the pandemic, advocates and activists are using other means to continue educating young people until students can safely receive proper in-person sex education. 

Efforts to provide comprehensive, inclusive and medically accurate sex education have almost completely halted in the U.S. due to COVID-19.

Before COVD-19, many reproductive health organizations were passionately pursuing the improvement of sex education in New York. The Sex Education Alliance of New York City was born about a decade ago to track data on the efficacy of current sex education, and in 2017, the Sexual Health Education Taskforce was born under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration to review sex education curriculum recommended by the New York City Department of Education and ensure its implementation. 

With so many efforts to push for K-12 sex education, 8 bills that would improve sex education curriulum were finally introduced to the state Senate and the Assembly. However, due to COVID-19 ravaging communities, especially New York City, sex education legislation came to an abrupt halt to focus on pandemic relief initiatives. 

Additionally, with schools transitioning over to remote instruction, sex education was ultimately severely reduced. Alongside New York City’s struggle to ensure every student has access to a tablet or working Wi-Fi, sex education professionals also struggled with keeping students engaged after hours on Zoom.

While online sex ed can be tough, there are some benefits, according to Abigail Soule, program coordinator of health education at the Center for Community Alternatives. “You can reach people on a much larger scale than you could in a classroom and there’s an interface with videos that we could have before.”

However, there are still challenges to the online education world.

“A huge part of teaching sex ed is building trust with your students so that you’re able to have honest conversations with them about sexuality. This is incredibly hard to do over zoom” Soule told NYN Media. “There’s no rapport, there’s no staying after class to ask questions, it’s just sticking to the PowerPoint and a lot of blank screens. You can still find those young people who are willing to step out of their comfort zones and speak honestly and ask questions, but it’s been much harder to create that space online”.

Right now, a New York state mandate requires that schools only teach HIV/AIDS prevention instruction, any other subjects within the realm of sex education is left up to the school districts. Curriculum is not required to include consent, sexual orientation or gender identity as it is not required to be comprehensive. Furthermore, parents are allowed to “opt out” or refuse HIV/AIDS instruction for their children.

Teaching sex education virtually may not have been as successful, but with wider access to online spaces comes online support. Advocates for Youth has a free online database of sex education curriculum and Planned Parenthood has a sex ed site youth can scroll through for more information. Social media initiatives have also been trending, with some famous TikTokers using their platforms to educate young people. 

“While the online sex ed world absolutely has its limits, I think it’s also opened doors for creative ways to approach how we share this work,” said Soule. “This is a great option for people who don’t have sex ed in their schools, don’t have representation in their lives and want accurate information. It’s out there, you just have to know which courses are reliable.” 

While sex education may have slowed down during the pandemic, advocates and activists are using other means to continue educating young people until students can safely receive proper in-person sex education.