This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Sex education in schools has been up for debate for many years. As a 20 year-old who experienced the sex education program in Utah, I would like to see Utah shift to a comprehensive sex education program.
With the current sex education in Utah, students are only taught the very basics of human sexuality in school, and parents are expected to be the primary source of education on the subject. The assumption that parents are experts on human sexuality and talk to their kids about sex is one of my biggest problems with Utah's sex education. When the topic of sex education came up in one of my college classes, the professor asked how many of the students were educated on sex by their parents and a whopping three out of 40 raised their hands.
So, if parents are not the primary source of information, who is? Until all parents in Utah get on board with teaching their children about sex, Utahns need to seriously start considering shifting to a comprehensive sex education. Would you rather have your child searching "sex" on the internet to get information or have it taught in schools?
Alison Witt
St. George