PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Dr. Aurelie Athan, Clinical Psychologist and Faculty Member at Teachers College, Columbia University, on Comprehensive Sex Education
2:46:04
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4 min
Dr. Aurelie Athan, a clinical psychologist and faculty member at Teachers College, Columbia University, provided testimony on the importance of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education in NYC schools. She emphasized the need for a holistic approach that goes beyond basic anatomy and STI prevention to include socio-emotional learning and lifelong literacy.
- Dr. Athan highlighted the connection between lack of education and public health issues, stressing the importance of preparing students for life's challenges.
- She recommended increasing the frequency and depth of sex education, improving teacher training, and expanding the focus to include reproductive health education.
- Dr. Athan offered her expertise to support curricula development and workshops, emphasizing the need to address emerging issues in reproductive health.
Aurelie Athan
2:46:04
So my name is Orly Athan, and I'm a clinical psychologist, researcher, and faculty member at Teachers College, Columbia University.
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I specialize in sexual and reproductive health, cofounded the Sexuality, Women, and Gender Project, and oversee a well attended professional development program for teachers on our New York City campus and nationally online.
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Lastly, as a scholar, I promoted concepts like matrescence and reproductive identity to provide a more empowered strength based perspective that has resonated with both the scientific community and the general public.
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But I'm here today to offer my testimony and ongoing expertise as you consider how to best strengthen this critical component of the New York City health education.
2:46:41
Over the past decade, I've witnessed firsthand the positive progress made locally from the early efforts to bring sex ed to the attention of legislators, to improved initiatives of the office of school wellness as we've heard today, and listen closely to the voices of 100 of New York and out of state teachers that I've studied.
2:46:57
I, therefore, welcome the opportunity to share what I've heard from them and continue the important discussion beyond these walls.
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I came to this advocacy work after many years of listening closely to people in crisis, actually, as a psychologist, grappling with things like interpersonal violence, postpartum depression, and they often repeated the all too familiar refrain, why didn't anybody tell me?
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They felt not only unsupported during these critical moments, but also unprepared.
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The increasing mental and physical health burdens, which you know firsthand, have led to a costly cascade of public health issues.
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This led me to trace the problem to what I firmly believe is one of its root causes, a lack of education.
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And, in teachers college, we say that education has a hand in uplifting human suffering.
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It is one of the main ways that we can, help.
2:47:47
So comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education is essential for fostering, as you know, lifelong healthy relationships, reproductive well-being, and informed decision making.
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It's not, however, just about preventing teen pregnancies or raising awareness about STIs, the plumbing approach of anatomy, right, we want socio emotional learning.
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We wanna equip young people with lifelong literacy.
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This means giving them the knowledge and the skills to find the right information, distinguish fact from fiction, and apply that wisdom throughout the many twists and turns their journey will inevitably take.
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It is about instilling long term thinking, not just short term postponement, helping them build a life of intention, understanding themselves as whole people with agency, and navigating their choices with confidence and care.
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These are the clearly laid out targets outlined also by the World Health Organization's sustainable development goals as well as the National Sex Ed Standards.
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Ensuring access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education upholds the dignity, the rights, and the well peep the well-being of all people.
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To make this vision a reality more locally, I recommend the following actions.
2:48:53
And to clarify, we've heard again and again the following message, that I kind of say in my classroom, sex ed is just a slice of the health ed pie.
2:49:03
And we often leave it off the plate.
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Is that it?
2:49:06
Okay.
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I'll keep on going.
2:49:08
Thank you.
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I also agree that sex ed is a lens through which we can learn other academic classes like history and geography.
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So I'm gonna focus my recommendations on sexual and reproductive health topics specifically.
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We need to increase the dose and the frequency.
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I think we've, the DOE has laid out a strong scope and sequence modeled on national standards, but I often wish we had more than 1 semester or more.
2:49:29
We do need to continue tracking the implementation of sex education specifically rather than health education in general and ensure the standardized training of all health educators, as you've heard here.
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We're also, here to provide support for curricula development and workshops.
2:49:45
So, on a personal note, if I can just take one 32nd more point, since this is my specific area of expertise, I think we actually need to do even better on repro ed, not only just talking about sex ed.
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The tide of change is here for reproductive health.
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We can no longer afford to kick the can down the road.
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It's an emerging issue.
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The rise of infertility, advancements in reproductive technologies, LGBTQ family building, more childless by choice adults opting out, as well as rollbacks to our basic rights of access to self determined reproductive health care.
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We do not simply give enough time and space for our students to explore how intimately reproductive health is connected with sexual health and their overall life satisfaction.
2:50:24
I will stop there.
2:50:25
Thank thank you for your time, and I'll submit an updated version of this electronically for the record.
2:50:29
Thank you for the extra time.
