The host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver tackled the issue of sex education, or lack there of, in American schools.
Here are some of the mind-blowing things Oliver points out that are wrong with America’s sex education:
Only 22 states require that sex ed be taught in their schools, and just 13 of these specify that the instruction be medically accurate.
In Mississippi, a state with the second-highest teen pregnancy rate ( 76 pregnancies per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19 ) , teachers are forbidden from demonstrating how to use a condom.
Lots of schools fail to address the needs of gay students. (A recent survey found that only 48% of schools addressed sexual identity and sexual orientation.)
Many states now advocate for abstinence-only, and Congress recently increased its funding of abstinence education from $50 million to $75 million per year.
In the show, Oliver claims that sex ed should be held to the same standard as any other discipline. “You wouldn’t accept a history class not being historically accurate,” he says. “Prince started the American Revolution in 1984, and his purple reign lasts until the present day. Class dismissed.”
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