The City

Georgia is one of the minority of states that requires sex education in schools. The problem that I am focusing on is the content of these sex education programs in Atlanta public schools. Many of these victim-blame in examples of sexual assault, teach abstinence-only, and leave out essential information about consent, contraceptives, healthy relationships, and the queer community.

The Atlanta area was ranked fifth for HIV rates in 2015 by the CDC. While the state of Georgia does mandate HIV education, according to the Guttmacher Institute many schools instead teach Choosing the Best – a program that “provides information about abstinence” and “why wait training”. There are few comprehensive sex education programs that inform students about sexual health and protective measures. While I was born and raised in Atlanta, I was incredibly privileged to have received supplementary comprehensive sex education, so I am very interested in discovering how (and if) sex ed is taught in most Atlanta public schools.