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Wayne State students Cassidy Allen and Maggie Graham call for updating Michigan’s outdated sex ed laws to better prepare students.
What’s scarier than having “the talk” with your kids? Realizing they’re learning about inappropriate touching on the bus from another 2nd grader. That their school’s sex ed is so inadequate they’re turning to Google for answers. That they’re going to college without knowing the basics about their own bodies. That they didn’t learn the signs of an unhealthy relationship until they found themselves or their friends in one.
In schools across Michigan, students are being failed by sex education curricula that’s strangled by a law that hasn’t been touched in 20 years — before iPhones and Instagram even existed, before the growth of sexting, cyberbullying, dating apps, and medical advancements to prevent HPV and HIV infections — leaving young people completely unprepared for the realities of today’s world. And when young people are kept in the dark, they’re more vulnerable to being harmed or manipulated.
Today, we’re two college students studying public health, but when we were younger, we both experienced the consequences of outdated sex education laws.
For Cassidy, not being warned what periods were like meant that when she first got hers, she thought she was dying. Her first “lessons” in sex ed were actually on the bus in 1st and 2nd grade when a boy pulled down his pants and a girl tried playing “doctor” on her best friend.
She hadn’t yet learned about safe or unsafe touching, which are the age-appropriate building blocks for more complex concepts like boundaries and consent that we learn when we’re older. So she said nothing; her parents only learned about the first incident after she wrote about it in a journal. Without even the most basic education about inappropriate touching, kids don’t have the language to report sexual abuse they witness on the bus, in daycare, or at home.
When Maggie was in 5th grade, the girls and boys were divided for a week of sex ed, and she learned about girls’ bodies — but nothing about boys’ bodies. In middle school, when she saw discharge bleaching her underwear, she panicked, thinking she had somehow contracted an STI, even though she was a virgin.
A missed period sent her into a similar panic — until she learned that stress can disrupt menstrual cycles. She asked her mom about some of these issues, and her mom did her best to answer her, but with questions still lingering, Maggie often turned to Google for the answers instead. Thankfully, she found trustworthy sources that helped ease her stress.
Despite the dangers of not knowing how your body works, health wasn’t a required class in high school, so most students opted to take another year of foreign language instead. And it made her wonder: did adults not care about their health?
Given these personal experiences growing up, and hearing so many similar stories from our friends and peers, it’s clear that Michigan’s sex ed law is woefully outdated. House Bill 6068 was recently introduced in the Michigan House and it would make much-needed updates to Michigan’s sex ed law, ensuring young people have access to sexual health education that is comprehensive, medically accurate, research informed, inclusive, age and developmentally appropriate, and non-shaming.
This isn’t controversial. The vast majority of parents across the political spectrum — 96% — say it’s important that their kids receive sex ed in high school. That includes 94% of Republicans and 99% of Democrats. In fact, parents overwhelmingly support teaching high school students about topics such as birth control, STIs, sexual orientation, puberty, and healthy relationships — and even the topics that may be seen as most controversial actually have more than 85% support from parents. More than 78% of parents support these topics being taught in middle school.
Only a small but vocal minority are fanning moral panic and spreading misinformation about this legislation — and these folks at the fringes are the reason Michigan’s sex ed law is frozen in time.
The truth is, years of research has shown that sex ed does not encourage sexual activity; quite the opposite. In fact, young people who receive a comprehensive sex education like the one outlined in this bill are more likely to delay sexual activity. High-quality sex ed reduces teen pregnancies, STIs, sexual violence, and bullying. It also increases self-esteem, healthy relationships, and feelings of safety for all students.
A well-rounded sex education not only informs students, but equips them with the skills needed to communicate with parents, doctors, and trusted adults about sexual and reproductive health. And when young people have a trusted adult in their lives who talks to them about sexual health — a parent, teacher, coach, mentor — they are more likely to experience better health and relationship outcomes.
When schools teach comprehensive sex ed, parents are often relieved that sex ed doesn’t fall entirely on them — our parents certainly didn’t want to have that conversation. In fact, when done well, sex ed can serve as an icebreaker, providing parents an opportunity to start that important conversation with their kids at home.
The real question is this: Do we want our kids learning about sex from TikTok, misinformed friends, or the back of the school bus? Or would we rather them learn from trained teachers using medically accurate, age-appropriate curricula that’s been shaped by parents and local experts in each community, vetted in public hearings, and approved by the school board — an elected body that ultimately answers to all of the parents in the entire community, not just the exceptionally loud ones?
By updating Michigan’s sex education law, we can prepare students for the realities of the 21st century while equipping them to make educated decisions about their health and relationships.
We know what it’s like to grow up without this knowledge. Let’s make sure the next generation doesn’t have to — so we don’t have to keep having this talk.

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