Students say sex ed club will be better than health class

Like many around the state, students at St. Louis Park High School learn about sex education in health class.

But some students thought that the class structure didn't allow enough time for any meaningful discussion about sex. So they decided to start a sexual health education club which could be the first of its kind in Minnesota. Starting in January, the club will discuss everything from birth control and abstinence to sexually transmitted infections and how to foster healthy relationships. It will be open to students in grades 9-12.

A teacher will attend the meetings, but the discussions will be led by the three students who founded the club, Brita Hunegs, Shoshi Fischman and Dave Herrera.

They will be trained to discuss sex education by myHealth for Teens and Young Adults, a clinic in Hopkins that specializes in sexual health, and develops sex ed curriculum for school districts.

Fischman, 17, said it wasn't easy to convince school officials to allow them to start the club. It took six months of conversations about what topics they would cover and how the club's leaders would be trained.

"We're here to educate and instill confidence in people to make their own choices and they can say no when they want to say no and know how to control their own bodies and do everything that they can do for themselves," she said. "We're here to educate people on the topic of safe sex, not just to have sex and not to just promote sex."

Fischman said teens are more likely to listen to lessons on sexual health from their peers than a teacher.

Herrera, 18, hopes the club's leaders will be seen as the people other students — even by students who don't join the club — can go to with questions or concerns about sex.

"Really, all I want is people to know that we're there and people like us are out there and that they have resources to go to if they need help for whatever reason," he said.

St. Louis Park High School health teacher Allison Luskey, who will serve as the club's adviser, said parents who feel uncomfortable about students discussing sex should remember their generation is surrounded by sexual images.

"Social media, music, videos, TV, movies — it's everywhere," Luskey said. "So I think that they're learning and they've been taught by a lot of different sources that it's OK to talk about, and OK to have healthy, informative conversations about this, and I think that's fabulous."

The club will use classroom space for meetings, but won't receive any school funding and must operate outside of the school day.

St. Louis Park interim principal Scott Meyers, who serves on the school committee that approved the club, said school officials took their time mulling it over. They held several meetings with the students who wanted to start the club, and asked lots of questions about what they planned to discuss.

"There's always a piece where you say 'Wow, this is a pretty big topic,'" Meyers said. "We don't want to anyway promote anything, we want to inform and help students make healthy choices."

In the end Meyers and the school club committee decided sex is something students talk about already, so they should have a place to find good information.

"It's our hope as a school that these conversations are happening at home," he said. "However, if they're not this would provide a place for students to ask some questions that they have."