Planned Parenthood | Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund

December 01, 2009 9:37:12

by Truc
Teen Council member and Web Correspondent
Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota

Teen Council, Planned Parenthood's all-star youth development program, had the privilege of stepping up to the podium on Tuesday, November 9th in front of the Minneapolis Public School Board committee to make an appeal for the inclusion of comprehensive sex ed in Minneapolis schools.   

The revision of the Minneapolis public schools health curriculum gives advocates for comp sex ed the perfect opportunity to advance their cause. Hello, Teen Council! Weeks in advance to the meeting, our Teen Council excitedly discussed and brainstormed what we wanted to present to the committee. Should we present irrefutable statistics about the raging numbers of STIs? Should we talk about how important sexual education is? Where do we start? Where do we stop? Can we beg? We decided unanimously that presenting statistics was ineffective; the committee could look up numbers if they wished-we wanted to connect personally with the committee. Our council drew up personal anecdotes about the sexual education we received.

The differences were alarming.

We quickly targeted the committee's concerns: they wanted kids to receive equal education. Since there was a lack of curriculum set concerning sex ed, this essential topic was left to the teacher's discretion. False information could be taught, a teacher could teach it in a biased fashion that casted a negative light on sexuality or opt not to teach it at all.  Our personal anecdotes exemplified these startling truths. Perfect. In addition, we outlined why we thought comprehensive sex ed was so important.     

Phoebe was our elected spokesperson, and it was her responsibility to weave together our outline and deliver it. Tuesday came quickly, and we were able to gather seven Minneapolis public schools attendees total. This bought us 10 minutes of speaking time.

Phoebe, with the help of Jaime, Emily and Carise, our all-star facilitators, and the rest of the council, was revising the speech up until she literally sat down to await her turn to speak. We were joined by other Planned Parenthood all-stars for support. We watched people appeal about various topics and our excitement fused with our anxiety. The committee looks so tired, I thought.  How well are they going to receive this?  They called Phoebe's name and all seven of us stood up as we made our way to the podium. We looked formidable. The audience straightened up in their seats. Phoebe's delivery was brilliant! Her speech was articulate and concise, she was gracious and assertive-she even made the committee smile! Most importantly, she really drove the point home. At the end, there was even applause. Do they even applaud at these things? Eventually there was a break and a member from the committee approached Phoebe and congratulated her and engaged her in a conversation. The Teen Council received warm compliments and recognition among many people there that fateful Tuesday.

It's moments like these where I feel so fortunate and proud to be apart of Planned Parenthood and the rights the organization strives to fight for and uphold.  Teen Council is ready to take hold of the podium again. Democracy is awesome.

Currently, the Deputy Superintendent is reviewing options around structural and systemic support for the Health Curriculum Adoption process—we hope that it will ensure that all middle school students receive sex education at least once between 6th-8th grade.    

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