Sex ed is one of the most divisive subjects in the American school system, with the curriculums varying from state to state, district to district, school to school, and even from grade to grade. The curriculum at LHS mixes students in grades 9-12 every year for their health classes, and once every four years, that curriculum focuses on sex ed. Because of how short of an amount of time is dedicated to the health curriculum each year, “that’s forced us to kind of go in a different direction,” says Mr. James Frost, the Unified Arts (which covers physical and health education, art, and music programs) department chair. “We still cover the same content,” he says, “but we deliver it a little less involved because you have ninth graders with seniors.”

    But what exactly is covered in the curriculum? According to the health education standards from the Rhode Island Department of Education, it’s quite a lot. The standards for grades nine and ten for sexuality and family life cover the widest variety of topics; including sexual assault and harassment, different forms of contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, sexuality and gender identity, abstinence, abortion, reproductive anatomy, and communication in relationships. The eleventh and twelfth grade curriculum covers many of the same topics but focuses more on sexual decision making and relationships, rather than the more mechanical lessons for the underclassmen. In addition to all of the required information in the sexuality and family life portion of the curriculum, there are also several other subjects that must be taught. Dating violence must be covered every year, and the other topics include mental health, nutrition, and substance use and abuse prevention.

    As of right now, the senior class is the only class that has experienced the sex ed curriculum at LHS. The last time that curriculum was taught was in the 2014-15 school year, when they were freshmen. According to curriculum documents and teaching materials from the Unified Arts department, the information that is required by the state is certainly there in the curriculum that these seniors were taught. However, a survey of some of these seniors indicated that while 95% of them received sex ed in some form during their freshman year, only 63% of those students felt that the sex ed that they received was adequate and provided them with useful information. One senior said in the survey that they felt “the only thing we were told was to not have sex, not to have safe sex.” A fellow student echoed that sentiment, saying that “the sex ed that I received was a lot about STDs and the dangers of sex, but I don't think that we were taught sufficiently in the methods that can be used to prevent these dangers (condoms, birth control) aside from abstinence.” As for students that felt that their sex ed was sufficient, one student said that they “remember learning about the different types of STDs and ways of preventing them,” and another said that “it was broad and provided a wide range of options.”

    A likely reason for the gap in what LHS students got out of their sex ed is the small amount of time allotted to it. Each year, every student at the high school has one semester dedicated to physical and health education. Only a few classes in a given semester are used for health education, and, according to Frost, there’s simply not enough time to cover everything as in-depth as it could be because of the large amount of material that needs to be covered in that small amount of time. Frost is adamant that they “get all the information out.” He said that “we still cover the main content, we have to cover HIV, we have to cover AIDS, we have to cover all sexually transmitted diseases, we talk about abstinence, we talk about different ways of birth control, we talk about what’s a healthy relationship, what’s an unhealthy relationship, [and] if questions arise about gender identity we answer those.” But, due to the small amount of time, they “can’t spend as much time” on the material as they used to be.

    When Frost began teaching, not only was physical education scheduled every day, but it was also a separate class than health. Students would receive health for a full quarter in grades 9 and 11, in addition to a full semester of physical education. But, he says, “over the year they’ve kept cutting back the amount of hours that we have” to teach health. In addition to that, there are fewer teachers to teach the subject. “In the past, when we had grade-pure classes, we’d have four teachers on every period...right now they’ve eliminated teachers based on the reduction in the amount of students in the high school. We used to have like 1100 kids, now we’re down to 800. So as a result they’ve reduced staffing, so that’s affected our programming and how we deliver our curriculum.” He also added that “we’re still within the state requirement for time” spent on health education, so, technically, all of the requirements are met, “but as a result of them cutting back, we just don’t have the time.”

   There there is no clear solution to the sex ed disparities in LHS, nor is there a clear solution to the lack of time for health education which, according to Frost, is  “a bigger school-wide issue.” There is a lot to cover in the curriculum not only for sexuality and family life but also for the other health topics, including mental health, substance abuse, and nutrition. “They’ve added so many more things on our plate,” he said, having also mentioned that “Lincoln provides us with great resources,” and that “we have everything that we need. But “if they keep adding all those things, they should say, alright, you need to increase the amount of time for these things. But they’re also telling the school that we need to have more AP classes and we have to have exhibition. They keep adding all those things but there’s no place to put it.”