The Austin school district is like an overprotective parent, acting like any talk about sex is taboo. When in reality not talking about it at all can actually be one of the leading causes of teen pregnancy.

According to an Eagle’s Eye online survey sent out the the Akins student body, 43 percent of the respondents admitted to be sexually active. This is a staggering amount, due to the vast majority of high school students being under the age of 18.

While teenage pregnancy is increasingly common, being a teen mom makes it a lot more difficult to pro- vide for and raise a child. Raising a kid as an adult is hard enough, but doing it as a teenager still in school is a lot more difficult.

In the survey, 32 percent of respondents have not had a talk about safe sex, and 45 percent of respondents said they would rather have the talk at school than with their parents. In the survey 63 percent of respondents either get their information about sex and relationships from either their friends or the Internet.

While those sources can be reliable sometimes, they can also be filled with incorrect information. There are nearly 750,000 teen pregnancies a year. I blame those results on the school administration, according to www.dosomething.org

The school district needs to put more importance on teaching students about sex education. Only 11 percent of students’ parents talk to them about sex, so we can’t rely on them to teach what’s safe and what’s not.

Some schools offer support groups for after a girl in confirmed pregnant, but before the situation actually gets serious, it’s almost like it doesn’t matter.

Students already have so much to worry about like achieving goals academically, and succeeding in extracurricular activities. Adding a baby into the mix is just too much for the student to handle.

When you have a baby you have to worry about medical bills, baby food, clothes, and other supplies like a crib. Adding all of that to the normal obstacles of homework and time consuming activities is too much for many teen mothers.

But sometimes it’s not just the students’ fault. Some students may not be aware of contraception, or that some magical method to avoid getting pregnant while having sex doesn’t actually work.
At my elementary school fourth and fifth graders went through a week called, “Healthy Choices.” It was all about puberty, health, and sex. But when I asked some others about whether they had those classes, some responded no, and some said they had classes in middle school.

Despite these attempts at teaching us when we’re young, the main focus needs to be when we’re older, and our hormones are raging. By the time we make it to that stage in our lives, we’ve had so many experiences and memories that make us forget about the week long class, that we need a reminder of the importance of being safe and use contraception.

You can’t stop students from having sex, but you can help prevent them from having to face the consequences by doing all you can to teach them about how to stay safe.

Right now the school district isn’t doing enough to help us out. It’s as if the district would rather bury its head in the sand and pretend it’s not happening. The district claims to care about their students, but they sure don’t show it.