A group of pimply faced freshmen are stifling nervous giggles as their gym teacher uses a banana to instruct the class on how to properly apply a condom.

If you’re a high school student in Florida, odds are the only reason that sounds familiar is because you’ve seen one too many teen comedies. The fact of the matter is that most schools are failing to teach kids what they really need to know about sex.

Reasons for this vary. Funding, religious practices, and the general social taboo that surrounds kids and sex are all reasons teachers would rather ignore the purple elephant than discuss it openly with students. The problem with this is that by ignoring the fact that students can and do have sex, more room is left for misinterpretation. Questions about birth control, sexually transmitted disease, and pregnancy receive false answers because there is no one to ask. If there’s no one to ask, students will eventually turn to their friends. That’s where ideas such as the pull out and rhythm method eventually start to circulate. Students, having no one to debunk such methods, will use them until they inevitably fail. That is not the worst of the outcomes. A study showed that the abstinence-only policy led students to believe that drinking coca-cola, mountain dew, and even bleach would terminate pregnancy. The last of these actually resulted in the death of a teen girl in Florida last year.

Many schools touch upon the subject, but not enough. The abstinence-only policy, one common in many schools, teaches that the only option is to not have sex at all. More in-depth education has a negative connotation of promoting sex. But surprisingly, the lack of support is not coming from parents. Though they have the option to withhold their kids from sex education classes, few parents choose to do so. Most of the reluctance lies with teachers and officials. Unfortunately, the state’s Senate committee is not keen on changing that. A bill approving a more comprehensive approach to sex education barely won approval in 2008.

"I think it is Florida’s responsibility to advocate safe sex in addition to abstinence, because if they [students] don’t know about it, they are going to get pregnant," Samantha Campagna, junior, said.

Abstinence-only education programs emphasize abstinence from sex, and exclude mention of all forms of contraception, namely birth control and safe sex. Often, these are only mentioned in conjunction with their failure rates to stress the option of abstinence until marriage.

Florida is one of the few states whose districts approve an abstinence-only program. For students here and in many other South Florida schools, the instruction received is more advanced. Condoms are not taboo, neither are graphic photos that depict what happens when you don’t use them. While often nauseating, this instruction is a blessing. Schools in central Florida are twice as more likely to teach abstinence-only, and three times more likely in northern Florida.

What is so wrong about abstinence only? In an ideal society, absolutely nothing. But for a teenager living in the most oversexed society in the most oversexed nation, abstinence-only education is a joke. The fact is that teenagers are engaging in sexual activity earlier than ever. Many people wish to stop the argument and work to correct that point, but when TV’s, movies, and music have already hard wired kids minds to sex, promoting abstinence only is pointless. Rather than trying to reprogram kids, or worse, telling them their only option is to not have sex, educators and adults alike should take it upon themselves to provide all the information so students can make informed decisions.

Another problem with sex education is that an average student will be exposed to it, at best, two times in their middle and high school career. Sure, safe sex may be the buzz word in the halls for a day or two, but not long enough to encourage habit. It should be reinforced constantly. Health and science teachers (since their subject permits it) should take the opportunity to discuss it constantly, not just once a year. Every teacher should be a role model, and should not refrain from giving advice and creating an atmosphere where kids are not afraid to ask questions about sex. The truth is that the majority of teens do not want children, and you would be hard pressed to find someone who was happy about having herpes. If the facts about pregnancy and STDs were pushed early and often, teens would think twice about sex they might later regret.