I’ve gone to Catholic school my entire life and have heard every single abstinence argument that is out there. In grade school, I was forced to sit through “Operation Keepsake,” which taught our class that we need to stay abstinent because sex is bad, without ever actually teaching us what sex is or the implications of having it.

As someone who never received proper sex education in school, I’ve grown up with skewed views of sex my entire life. Sex education needs to become required in all schools in the United States because the abstinence argument isn’t helping anyone.

I want to make it clear: abstinence is not bad, and I have nothing against it. Everyone has the right to practice consensual sex however they want with whomever they want, which includes not having it at all.

But school is about becoming educated so that people can better navigate their way through the world. Conversations about sex need to become comfortable and common in the classroom to help bring a more positive understanding to sex in the world because sex is a part of life whether people like it or not.

The truth is, no matter how much parents might try to stuff the ideas of abstinence into their child’s head, 46% of all high school students are having sexual intercourse and 39% of high school students who are sexually active aren’t using protection. By teaching students about sex in the classroom throughout middle school and high school, students can be in a safe environment where they can learn about how to practice safe sex to reduce the risk of Sexually Transmitted Infections and unintended pregnancies.

Not only can sex education help adolescents learn to practice safe sex, it can also teach a great lesson about consent. Rape culture is a serious issue in the United States, which has become more evident with movements like #MeTOoo and "Time’s Up." I think one of the reasons sexual abuse is so prevalent in America today is because children are never taught consent.

About 1.8 million adolescents in the United States have been sexually assaulted. Proper sex education might be one solution to the issue of sexual abuse because it can properly teach adolescents what consent is and what to do if they have been in a nonconsensual situation.

Parents never want their children to be hurt by fire, but fire safety is still taught in schools so that children can understand the dangers of fire and still know how to properly light a candle if they choose to do so. Although open flames can be dangerous, they can be safe and beautiful when people are properly educated about them and know what to do if anything goes wrong.

Sex and sex education should be no different. It is time for the world to realize that the negative connotations around sex need to change and that change can start in classrooms today.