Sex education is lagging in conservative parts of the country, and the best way to provide students with appropriate information is by changing federal policy, said a sex education activist last night in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Invited to BU by VOX: Voices for Choice, Shelby Knox, who challenged her Texas hometown’s conservative values when she was in high school and advocated for broader sex education, showed 25 Boston University students — mostly female — her documentary highlighting her attempts to increase sex education and change policies across the country.
Following the film, the University of Texas at Austin senior fielded questions from the audience and brought attention to the country’s regions other than her hometown of Lubbock, Texas that she said are behind in sex education.
“All states have problems with sex education — even Massachusetts,” Knox said. “The state does not have mandated sex education at all [in public schools]. Most people agree with comprehensive sex ed, and they already think they are getting it. The parents especially don’t know that their kids aren’t getting it.”
Knox started actively campaigning after she realized her high school’s abstinence-only sex education curriculum was based largely on Christian influence. Lubbock has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country, she said.
“It really angered me that the school system was consciously lying [to] promote a belief that not necessarily everyone shares,” she said. “In Texas, the only way a school district can get money for sex education is to teach an abstinence-only program.”
The film documented Knox’s participation in the “True Love Waits” program through her church to pledge sexual purity until marriage. Knox said the problem with programs like “True Love Waits” is they lack comprehensive information about sex and sexual health.
“Abstinence pledges are not about sex education,” she said.
The federal government allots money for sex education, and states determine the curriculum for those programs, Knox said. She suggested sexual health education policies be changed at the national level.
“It’s surprising that [Knox] was so active in high school,” said BU Women’s Center member Alexandra Alderfer, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore. “When I was 15, I was more worried about graduating.”
Knox will appear on “The Today Show” next week to share her experiences with a larger audience.
The number of on-campus activist groups can overwhelm students, said VOX Vice President Gena Doyle, a College of Communication sophomore. She said BU political apathy seems to be prevalent.
“There are so many politically active groups to get involved with that I think there is a [sense of] disconnect,” she said.
Doyle said though last night’s turnout was satisfactory, she would have appreciated more male students.
“It would be nice to have had more boys [attend the screening], but that seems to be the trend in all our VOX events,” she said.
Knox said students benefit from seeing a documentary about a place like Lubbock because many are unaware of other regions’ cultures.
“It’s good for a liberal campus to get awareness of a conservative place like Texas,” she said after the event. “Sometimes they don’t know things are actually like that.”
