New Video! Teens & Sex: The Status of Sexual Health Education in West Virginia

Check out this new video!  University students across the state of West Virginia, including PPHS WV Public Policy Intern and frequent Country Friend Choice contributing blogger, Jordan Bean, asked their peers to share their experiences learning about sex.  Insightful and genuine, their stories demonstrate the need for honesty and openness when it comes to talking, learning and teaching about sexual health.

Do you have a sex ed story to share ?  We’d love to hear it – just leave a comment!

Locked Up Condoms

By: Quinandria Lee
Ms. Lee is a highschool student in North Charleston, SC and is a member of the South Carolina Youth Activist Network, a project of Advocates for Youth.

Once a month we will feature opinion pieces by Ms. Lee who will chronicle for us different experiences she has as a teenager and how they affect her ability to make positive and safe decisions about her reproductive health.  This is the state of reproductive health in South Carolina from a Teen’s perspective.  Check out her first piece here!

I was in CVS this past weekend, to purchase contact solution, and on the very same aisle, I noticed a glass case with condoms being stored in it. I stated out loud “why would you have condoms locked up in a glass case, if there is no age limit on buying condoms?” By all means it was a rhetorical question, but my mom joked and was like, “I guess CVS got tired of fools stealing condoms.” WOW, okay so if store owners are tired of people stealing, shouldn’t everything in the store be locked in a glass case? Why condoms? We realize that people do steal when they go into stores, but are condoms the main product that thieves are looking for? So many questions, so little answers.

As a teen, if I were to purchase condoms I would be embarrassed to have to find a store employee with a key to open the case, stand there with the employee to decide on what condom, brand, and even flavor I want to purchase, all while other customers walking pass, watching me deliberate. What happened to privacy? Have we as a society, gotten so bad, that we no longer can afford privacy or trust?