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    U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

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    June is officially Pride Month in Oxford

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    Oxford celebrates Juneteenth holiday

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    Orientation sessions introduce new students to Ole Miss

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    UM remembers 26 lives in annual memorial ceremony

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    Ole Miss sweeps Oklahoma to win National Championship

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    Rebels bounce back to win thriller over Arkansas 2-0, advance to CWS Finals

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    Rebs stay hot in Omaha, beat Auburn 5-1

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    The comeback kids: Ole Miss Baseball advances to College World Series

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    L.A. living

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    Catch us if you Cannes: UM students study abroad

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    Lavender LLC debuts this fall

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    U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

    U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

    June is officially Pride Month in Oxford

    June is officially Pride Month in Oxford

    Oxford celebrates Juneteenth holiday

    Oxford celebrates Juneteenth holiday

    Orientation sessions introduce new students to Ole Miss

    Orientation sessions introduce new students to Ole Miss

    UM remembers 26 lives in annual memorial ceremony

    UM remembers 26 lives in annual memorial ceremony

    Hickerson selected as SOJNM dean, pending IHL approval

  • Sports

    Ole Miss Baseball returns home to crowd of fans

    Ole Miss sweeps Oklahoma to win National Championship

    Ole Miss sweeps Oklahoma to win National Championship

    Rebels bounce back to win thriller over Arkansas 2-0, advance to CWS Finals

    Rebels bounce back to win thriller over Arkansas 2-0, advance to CWS Finals

    Ole Miss is dominated again in game two

    Rebels victorious over Hogs, move on to bracket finals

    Rebs stay hot in Omaha, beat Auburn 5-1

    Rebs stay hot in Omaha, beat Auburn 5-1

    The comeback kids: Ole Miss Baseball advances to College World Series

    The comeback kids: Ole Miss Baseball advances to College World Series

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    L.A. living

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    Road tripping in Grand Tetons, Yellowstone

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    Catch us if you Cannes: UM students study abroad

    Lavender LLC debuts this fall

    Lavender LLC debuts this fall

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Opinion: Sex education resources are needed on campus

Londyn LorenzbyLondyn Lorenz
July 15, 2021
3 min read

High school students across the U.S., and especially the South, graduate and enter a world on their own without the proper tools to enter adulthood, sexual education being one of them. As students step foot on the University of Mississippi campus, most who received any form of sex education have not done so without some politics involved. 

Parents and politicians alike push to limit what school-age children are exposed to, yet these limitations can affect students as they grow into adults. Political limitations on the classroom do not consider how the information impacts students’ futures but how political topics such as abortion and contraception are discussed. This selective education severely limits students’ growth into fully informed adults.

All college-aged individuals may suffer from undereducation. 26.4 percent of female undergraduate students and 6.8 percent of male students experience rape or sexual assault. While sex ed cannot fully prevent this, it can give victims knowledge of resources following the attack. 

Uneducated consenting adults may also be at risk of the unknown. Abstinence-only education does not prepare sexually active individuals for contraceptive use and sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention. This lack of understanding can result in unwelcome outcomes including disease contraction, pregnancy and emotional distress. When children are taught that pre-marital sex carries extreme social, familial and health-related consequences without explaining what those consequences are, extreme emotional responses and shame can occur. These can be coupled with pre-existing mental health illnesses and issues to worsen into severe depression or other disorders. 

Twenty-eight states across the US require abstinence to be stressed in sex education. Students from many of these states, including Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee, make up a large part of the UM population. The state of Mississippi requires an abstinence-only or abstinence-plus curriculum; this includes instruction of “the social, psychological and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity” and “the harmful consequences to the child, the child’s parents and society that bearing children out of wedlock is likely to produce.”

Section 37013-171 of the Mississippi Code of 1972, which has been updated as recently as 2020, also states that “curriculum must inform students of current state law related to homosexual activity,” forbids any teaching of abortion, and allows a short discussion of contraceptives if the school district chooses to do so. While each component, such as “laws against sodomy,” do not have to be included, they cannot be contradicted. Every school’s curriculum must be approved by the Mississippi Department of Education, and all public schools are required to teach abstinence education. This also applies to public universities.

It would be wise, therefore, for groups on campus to provide adult sexual health education. It is illegal for the university to provide any service beyond abstinence-plus education itself according to state law, so this responsibility falls to student organizations. Organizations, such as RASA and the Student Wellness Ambassadors, embrace sexual wellness in their mission statements and would be the perfect groups to host adult sex education workshops. While some students do not need these services, many students have received little to no sex education in the classroom and would benefit from a politic-free learning environment.

Londyn Lorenz is the opinion editor from Perryville, Missouri majoring in Arabic and international studies.

In Case You Missed It

Ole Miss Baseball returns home to crowd of fans

23 mins ago
Ole Miss sweeps Oklahoma to win National Championship

Ole Miss sweeps Oklahoma to win National Championship

11 hours ago
Rebels bounce back to win thriller over Arkansas 2-0, advance to CWS Finals

Rebels bounce back to win thriller over Arkansas 2-0, advance to CWS Finals

2 days ago
U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

3 days ago
Ole Miss is dominated again in game two

Rebels victorious over Hogs, move on to bracket finals

4 days ago
June is officially Pride Month in Oxford

June is officially Pride Month in Oxford

4 days ago

Opinion: Sex education resources are needed on campus

Londyn LorenzbyLondyn Lorenz
July 15, 2021
3 min read

High school students across the U.S., and especially the South, graduate and enter a world on their own without the proper tools to enter adulthood, sexual education being one of them. As students step foot on the University of Mississippi campus, most who received any form of sex education have not done so without some politics involved. 

Parents and politicians alike push to limit what school-age children are exposed to, yet these limitations can affect students as they grow into adults. Political limitations on the classroom do not consider how the information impacts students’ futures but how political topics such as abortion and contraception are discussed. This selective education severely limits students’ growth into fully informed adults.

All college-aged individuals may suffer from undereducation. 26.4 percent of female undergraduate students and 6.8 percent of male students experience rape or sexual assault. While sex ed cannot fully prevent this, it can give victims knowledge of resources following the attack. 

Uneducated consenting adults may also be at risk of the unknown. Abstinence-only education does not prepare sexually active individuals for contraceptive use and sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention. This lack of understanding can result in unwelcome outcomes including disease contraction, pregnancy and emotional distress. When children are taught that pre-marital sex carries extreme social, familial and health-related consequences without explaining what those consequences are, extreme emotional responses and shame can occur. These can be coupled with pre-existing mental health illnesses and issues to worsen into severe depression or other disorders. 

Twenty-eight states across the US require abstinence to be stressed in sex education. Students from many of these states, including Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee, make up a large part of the UM population. The state of Mississippi requires an abstinence-only or abstinence-plus curriculum; this includes instruction of “the social, psychological and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity” and “the harmful consequences to the child, the child’s parents and society that bearing children out of wedlock is likely to produce.”

Section 37013-171 of the Mississippi Code of 1972, which has been updated as recently as 2020, also states that “curriculum must inform students of current state law related to homosexual activity,” forbids any teaching of abortion, and allows a short discussion of contraceptives if the school district chooses to do so. While each component, such as “laws against sodomy,” do not have to be included, they cannot be contradicted. Every school’s curriculum must be approved by the Mississippi Department of Education, and all public schools are required to teach abstinence education. This also applies to public universities.

It would be wise, therefore, for groups on campus to provide adult sexual health education. It is illegal for the university to provide any service beyond abstinence-plus education itself according to state law, so this responsibility falls to student organizations. Organizations, such as RASA and the Student Wellness Ambassadors, embrace sexual wellness in their mission statements and would be the perfect groups to host adult sex education workshops. While some students do not need these services, many students have received little to no sex education in the classroom and would benefit from a politic-free learning environment.

Londyn Lorenz is the opinion editor from Perryville, Missouri majoring in Arabic and international studies.

In Case You Missed It

Ole Miss Baseball returns home to crowd of fans

23 mins ago
Ole Miss sweeps Oklahoma to win National Championship

Ole Miss sweeps Oklahoma to win National Championship

11 hours ago
Rebels bounce back to win thriller over Arkansas 2-0, advance to CWS Finals

Rebels bounce back to win thriller over Arkansas 2-0, advance to CWS Finals

2 days ago
U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

3 days ago
Ole Miss is dominated again in game two

Rebels victorious over Hogs, move on to bracket finals

4 days ago
June is officially Pride Month in Oxford

June is officially Pride Month in Oxford

4 days ago

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