Keeping it REAL with the PTSA!
By Ashley, Member of the High School Organizing Team
The bell rang. School was out, but I was not leaving. Today I was not catching the bus to go home. Today was the result of everything I had been preparing for. This was it. This was the day that I was to introduce the idea of comprehensive sexuality education to my school. I was going to give a presentation about the need for honest sexual health education to a hundred parents and their children at a Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) meeting. I created an extensive power point presentation and invited Mimi Melles and Tom Klaus, representatives from Advocates for Youth to be on a panel of experts. They brought all sorts of material to pass out, and I had found them to be excellent at providing support for me, calming the nerves of parents and teachers alike, and answering the hard questions.
I felt prepared in every way, yet I was still deathly scared. This was not the usual “What if I mess up” stage fright, this was serious. I knew how controversial the topic was, and I knew I would not be greeted with open arms. The administration of my school had made it extremely clear to me that if I did this, I did it alone. When I walked into the meeting, everyone else had already been seated and my heart quickened its pace, as if trying to count the incredibly large number of people in the audience. I knew that the majority of people in this audience were opposed to my ideas. But I knew what I was standing for was noble and worthy, so I decided to stand tall.
The Vice Principal introduced me to the crowd with a disclaimer, “Any viewpoints expressed in the next hour are not affiliated with Appomattox Regional Governor’s School and are the sole reasonability of the expresser.” In dead silence I stood up and walked to the podium. The light from the projector was hot and bright. I looked around at the scowling faces, and in the mist of it all I found angels: three teachers who had conveyed their support to me since I began my endeavors were sitting in the front row with beaming smiles. I took one big gulp, a long exhale, and began.
The rest of the presentation went by without a hitch. I reviewed facts and figures on sexuality education. I proved unequivocally that comprehensive sexual education was needed, and that it was outrageous that a “prestigious” school like ours has no sexuality education curriculum. The parents, for the most part, responded positively. The questions they asked the panel were thought-provoking and helped bring the entire message home. In the end the school administration announced that they were going to work on bringing some kind of sexuality education into our school, but the promise seemed to be empty at best. I still hoped that the right decision would be made because now the parents held the accurate facts in one hand, and their child’s future in the other.
However, it turned out that an even larger sense of hope was around the corner. A week or two later it was announced that Virginia, my state, was to become the 14th State to reject federal Abstinence Only Funding and planed to become a fully comprehensive sexual education state. My ultimate goal was being realized and now it seemed my school would have no choice but to do what the rest of the state was doing. But somehow I still don’t feel like the fight is over – my school doesn’t have comprehensive sexuality education yet, and the laws could take some time to affect us. In the meantime, I will continue to do what I have been: working on a grassroots level with Advocates for Youth to make sure that my peers are getting the best possible chance at a healthy body, mind, and future.
>> Read Ben's Article: One High School Organizer Inspires Another: In response to Ashley’s Experience
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