Students Promote Choice
October 18, 2013
Roths and student Zoe Bartlett founded the local chapter, which has been temporarily administered through ESU Young Democrats. The first chapter meeting was held earlier this week, and the plan is to submit an application to Associated Student Government for formal recognition as a student organization.
Garner had not been involved in Choice USA before the conference. “I wanted to attend the conference to learn more about Choice USA and to learn how to get a bit more involved than I was,” he said.
The July national conference was devoted to several issues—sex education, abortion, consent, and advocacy. “I didn’t know how you could go to an office of legislators and talk to them,” Roths said. “They showed us the steps of how to do that. The last day we visited Senate offices and representatives’ offices and talked to staff members.”
Roths described one of the Choice USA campaigns, Sex Plus, promoting comprehensive sex education. “There are schools in Kansas still teaching abstinence only programs,” Roths said. “We found those not to be effective. Comprehensive sex education concentrates on the whole variety of sex education people should be receiving when they’re young. That does include abstinence, but it also includes other methods of birth control, contraceptives, and basically educating people to know these things before something happens later on.
