On Tuesday, May 19, former Classical Academy parent, Leslie Salazar-Carrillo, gave a presentation that discussed the physical, emotional and relational aspects of sex. Approximately 30 students attended during lunch.

The presentation covered the way the media influences our wants, claiming movies and television shows leave teenagers under the impression that sex is cool and teenagers should be sexually active in high school.

The students who attended viewed a short clip depicting multiple strangers using the same toothbrush. Mrs. Salazar-Carrillo explained that if teenagers don’t want to share a toothbrush with strangers, why should they share their body? A few attendees agreed that her comparisons helped put what she said into perspective. “She showed like a visual outline using a rope and like how our life will be shortened and changed completely if we make the wrong decisions,” junior Hedgie Lim said.

Students were educated on the most common sexually transmitted diseases: chlamydia, hpv-human papillomavirus, syphilis, herpes, HIV/AIDS and gonorrhea. “I felt like her main goal was just [to inform about] the diseases and why it is important to protect yourself, to respect yourself if you do have sex. She talked about the risks of not using protection and that’s pretty important,” sophomore Yvette Venema said.

A majority of students believed that the presentation was a step in the right direction for the school’s growth. “For me, I’ve only been [here for] two years so I don’t really know if we ever had this before…And I know a lot of people requested that kind of thing to be brought up because it’s definitely not something we should hide…That was our starting point and I hope in the future that we have more [presentations] and we can be more blunt about it. Not just, you know, sex education, but other topics people talk about,” Lim said.