This school year, the Canadian province is rolling out a controversial pilot program in 15 schools that will make sex education mandatory for all students from kindergarten through high school, CBS reports.

There is no exceptions for parents who wish to withdraw their children for religious or cultural reasons. Some parents and educators are challenging the policy, but the Ministry of Education is holding firm.

“Sexual education is planned for all quebec students,” spokesperson Pascal Ouellet said. The Ministry claims that the program – which may be adopted province-wide by 2017 – will help prevent sexual violence, reduce unwanted pregnancies, protect children from sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

The Ministry of Education is ignoring the parents wishes to not teach their children about sex, and how to protect them from pregnancies and STIs. If the parents want to wait to teach their child about sex, they should have the right to instead of The Ministry of Education telling them that they will be taught when they start kindergarten all the way through high school.

“No, I wasn’t ready to learn about sex in the 5th grade. It felt weird. I didn’t completely understand it, but it was good that I learned the basics in 5th grade so I could be prepared about more information or questions I had about that topic,” sophomore Amira Fontenot said.

5th grade is the right time to teach children sex education because girls are starting to get to the age of having their periods, and their bodies are starting to change. Boys are getting to the age when their bodies are changing also. They both start having “crushes” on the opposite sex.
They might not completely understand it, but they will know what’s going to happen to their bodies in the future. Children under the grade of 5 won’t understand it and will probably get freaked out about what’s going to happen to their bodies.

Do you think sex ed should be mandatory?

• yes
• no

View Results

 Loading ...