Education System

Building Awareness Across Initiatives

If you are leading an initiative or practice that is in alignment with the recommendations shared below, we want to hear about it, and would love to discuss how to elevate your work through this website or with partners. If you would like a partner to explore and discuss these recommendations with, please contact Trailhead’s Youth Sexual Health Program team to connect.

These anti-oppressive recommendations are a starting point for partners across sectors to convene conversations to learn from one another, build awareness for anti-oppressive initiatives happening within the youth sexual health field, discuss opportunities for collaboration, and engage in action planning.

Colorado Department of Education (CDE)

The following isms impact the policies, practices, and norms of the Colorado Department of Education: adultism, racism, patriarchy, heterosexism, transphobia, religionism, classism, capitalism, and ableism. This is not an exhaustive list. Visit the isms blog series to learn more.

  • As early as 1912, the National Education Association called for teacher training programs in sex education. The Chamberlain-Kain Act provided $4 million during the 1919-1920 school year to train teachers about STIs and teach high school students. This was the first federally funded sex education initiative in the United States. Beginning in the 1950s, the American Medical Association in collaboration with public health officials advocated for more sex education in schools. In the 1960s, conservative and religious groups argued that teaching sex education in schools encouraged risky sexual behaviors and advocated for abstinence until marriage education. The 1980s saw the HIV/AIDS epidemic and another push for abstinence only education. Teen pregnancy prevention, like HIV/AIDS, further justified sex education as a disaster prevention response.

    Controversy and differing opinions about appropriate sex education content to teach has been a central aspect of the story of sex education in the United States. This tension is exemplified today by the fact that the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) administers Title V State Abstinence Education funding, and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment administers Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education funding.

    Youth Sexual Health Program Board members noted that the role of CDE should be one focused on comprehensively educating young people on sexual health, autonomy, and pleasure, as well as provide resources, rather than simply mitigating risk, or responding to “disasters”. For example, readings like Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown and trauma informed practices, as well as examples of how schools can meaningfully engage communities and specifically young people in decision making would support a more holistic view of young people.

Recommendations for Anti-Oppressive Action

    • This includes, at minimum, funding community members for their time and expertise.

    • Create a process to determine who the community is that needs to be centered.

    • Intentionally build community within the school building first and then outwards.

    • Acknowledge the history of oppression and its continued legacy, including agencies' role in upholding these oppressions. One practice that upholds the history of oppression is the collection of data to understand the problem and then not doing anything about the problem.

    • Be held accountable to community to address disparities that exist in data in terms of sexual health outcomes.

    • Address the reality that Physical Education teachers are the de facto sex education teacher and often they are not trained or prepared to provide this education.

    • Require teachers to take sex education courses (include in PD’s) prior to teaching and as continuing education requirements.

    • This position should be full time and must have access to inclusive sexual health resources.

School Administrators

The following isms shape the role and decisions of School Administrators : adultism, racism, patriarchy, heterosexism, transphobia, classism, religionism, and ableism. This is not an exhaustive list. Visit the isms blog series to learn more.

  • In 1913, Chicago public schools became the first district in the nation to implement formal sex education programs. Ella Flagg Young, the superintendent of Chicago public schools, believed that teaching about sex would improve health and have positive “ethical effects”. Young received approval from her school board to host a series of lectures by physicians and at least 20,000 students participated. Schools had largely been silent on sexuality up until this point. The board rescinded its permission the following year after community members complained and fired Ella Flagg Young.

    In 2019, John Douglas, the executive director of the Tri-County Health Department in Colorado, testified in support of the Comprehensive Human Sexuality Education grant program bill (HB 19-1032). In a recent Westword article (July 7, 2022), the decision to testify in support, in addition to COVID response restrictions, were cited as reasons for the dissolution of Tri-County Health Department. In 2020, Douglas County superintendent Corey Wise was fired by the school board. Wise claims the firing occurred because of his advocacy for students with disabilities, LGBTQ students, and students of color.

    School and district administrators are charged with providing instructional leadership and developing, implementing, and evaluating district and school systems and policies. This means that school administrators play a critical role in sex education. For example, administrators determine whether it is offered, how it is offered, how it is communicated to parents, and how young people are included in decision making. And this role is vulnerable to the political whims making a collective approach critical.

Recommendations for Anti-Oppressive Action

    • Require trauma informed training for all staff.

    • Create trauma-centered accountability systems for schools and leadership.

    • Outline and address school and organizational policies that are not trauma informed (i.e. dress codes, discipline policies, restructuring or eliminating the use of resource officers, ensure protections for staff with marginalized identities, etc.).

    • Create designated mental health spaces/days.

    • Ensure that all teachers and school staff have the ability and skills to intervene when students are displaying toxic behaviors.

    • This includes providing menstrual items in the men’s bathroom for transgender male and nonbinary or gender fluid students.

Teachers

The following isms impact the role educators play in sex education: adultism, heterosexism, religionism, and patriarchy. This is not an exhaustive list. Visit the isms blog series to learn more.

  • Teachers play a critical role in young people’s access or denial of sexual health education given the decentralized nature of schools. Teachers can be credible sources of information for students and their families. In Colorado the law states that if you offer sex education, then it must be comprehensive; however, the option to offer nothing to students is available. The Colorado Department of Education 2020 Health Standards describe what all students should know and prepares students to “apply knowledge and skills necessary to make personal decisions that promote healthy relationships and sexual and reproductive health.” However, in Colorado health is not a graduation requirement.

    AUL Denver, a trauma informed charter school within Denver Public Schools was highlighted on Colorado Public Radio for its exemplary work around comprehensive sex education. Here is what students had to say about their sex education teacher, Carlee Taga:

    • 19-year-old Julissa Blancas described the ways in which becoming a peer sex educator and Taga’s in-depth class helps kids talk openly and accurately by sharing, “I learned more and so like I have knowledge where I can tell my mom, some of the knowledge you gave me was true — and false,” she exclaimed. “I’m open to talking about it with my mom but sometimes it can be really uncomfortable.”

    • In the article for Colorado Public Radio, Jenny Brundin writes, “In the six-week class, students learn about anatomy, birth control, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), period cycles and pregnancy. Taga recalled shortly after the class studied ovulation and menstruation, a girl texted her later that day [sharing], “‘Miss I think I just ovulated!’ She’s like, ‘I was putting on my jeans and I felt the pinch, the ovulatory pinch!’” laughed Taga. Students also learn about consent and relationship dynamics. Consent is important to prevent sexual assault, but Taga says class discussions are also about being a good person, a good communicator, and a good sexual partner.”

    Al Vernacchio, a high school sexuality educator and national speaker, centers a sex positive education approach in his teaching that refutes the “disaster prevention” model of sex education. This approach centers helping students figure out what sex means to them, what skills are necessary to navigate healthy relationships, and if they choose, defining their sex lives.

Recommendations for Anti-Oppressive Action

    • Expect teachers to respond to sex education questions in a trauma-informed way regardless of whether they work in a trauma-informed school.

    • Hold space for students to be around other students without adults. For example, utilize research periods to create a peer-to-peer space.

    • Make space for questions to be asked where adults are not going to ask probing questions.

      • For example, create an anonymous question page/box (virtual resources and paper as options).

    • Stop separating students out by gender when teaching sexual health education.

    • Guide students to resources.

      • For example, if a student approaches a teacher about a sexual health related issue and the teacher does not feel like they can help the student, then the teacher should be trained on existing resources and supports to share with students.

Students

The following isms create the structures, both formal and informal, that dictate how young people interact with their school: adultism, racism, ableism, heterosexism, and patriarchy. This is not an exhaustive list. Visit the isms blog series to learn more.

  • The role of students in sexual health is both as a learner and as a leader. Student voice in the development of curriculum and content is imperative as is the creation of youth-led spaces, like peer leaders, to create trusted and safe spaces to learn about sexual health. The reality is that youth voice is largely excluded, ignored, or minimized.

    Talia Cardin, youth activist, artist, and youth facilitator and co-leader of this project stated the following, “My participation and that of my peers in the creation of this report in itself models the reformation and ideal sexual health experience, where young people are regarded with dignity and respect, and have autonomy over our lives and education.”

    AUL Denver, a trauma-informed charter school within Denver Public Schools implements a peer sex educator program that affords students the opportunity to be trained as sex educators and to support their peers in navigating sexual health questions in a safe and supportive environment. Students interview other students on health topics to understand the experiences of young people within their school. This model is something that could be replicated in other schools to fully support students.

    The following call to action and action steps hinge on teachers, administrators, and CDE making space and sharing power for these activities to occur.

Recommendations for Anti-Oppressive Action

School Nurses and School-Based Health Clinics

The following isms impact the role school nurses play in sexual health for young people: adultism, classism, capitalism, colonialism, ableism, racism, patriarchy, heterosexism, and transphobia. This is not an exhaustive list. Visit the isms blog series to learn more.

  • The first school-based health centers (SBHCs) emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s and focused on family planning access, teen pregnancy prevention, and supports to adolescent parents. Initially just a few urban communities offered SBHCs until investment from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in the late 1980s through early 2000s and Medicaid expansions in the 1990s guaranteed health insurance coverage for low-income adolescent patients.

    The 2020 Colorado Academic Health Standards require schools to follow comprehensive health standards, which also includes sexual health standards, for all their health education programs. According to the Colorado Association for School-Based Health Care, “SBHCs can offer support to schools in delivering sexual health education in the classroom….much of this content is new to school health educators and the SBHC can provide support to them and role model by including these topics in the SBHCs education.” The National Association of School Nurses advocates for developmentally appropriate evidence-based sexual health education as a part of a comprehensive school health education program that is accessible to all students. School nurses can play a key role in providing comprehensive sex education in schools. According to the Colorado Department of Education, 2022 Essential School Health Services Guidelines, school nurses can “participate in comprehensive health education program and school health policy development”, which specifically includes comprehensive human sexuality education.

    Youth Sexual Health Program Board members noted that School-Based Health Centers create a space and opportunity to offer reproductive services and affirming care for all students.

Recommendations for Anti-Oppressive Action