Danielle Howa Pendergrass was asked by parents to speak to their children. They weren't sure how to start the sex education conversation in their child's classroom and worried that all the sex education bases weren't covered. Howa Pendergrass, who owns and runs a women's health clinic in eastern Utah, used to have one-on-one discussions with teenagers.
The Eastern Utah Teen Council was launched in late 2020 to fill in knowledge gaps for local teens. Howa Pendergrass wouldn't have thought of starting a program that no one wanted. It was from listening, from hearing, from people asking, and from seeing the problems that arise when we don't talk and know.
She and Tomi Lasley are trying to educate adolescents about sex and healthy relationships. Teens who are otherwise kept in the dark about topics such as consent that are not covered in the state's health curriculum are helped by this community-driven approach.
The Indicator-Based Information System for Public Health shows that Utah has the highest rate of rape in the country. More information about sexual assault resources and prevention strategies have not been included in the sex education curriculum for the past two years.
Abstinence education doesn't prepare teens to make informed decisions about their sexual health, according to a review paper published by the Journal of Adolescent Health. Utahans may soon be limited in their options when it comes to pregnancies that are not planned. If the Supreme Court overturns the Wade decision, the state has a law that would ban almost all abortions.
Howa Pendergrass hopes that one day her program will be made obsolete by a more permanent solution, as debates around sex education and reproductive health care continue. She says that the dream with Teen Council is to have it continue and be supportive until we make bigger and broader changes to where they can go to school.
The story was published in the Tribune. Here, you can read its coverage. The short was funded by the Pulitzer Center.
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