When Terry Greenberg saw what was lacking in her children’s public school textbooks, she decided to take action. She made it her mission to provide accurate sexual education information for North Texas teens.
As a youth, Greenberg attended The Hockaday School — a private school — where she took a sex education course. She learned how to take care of herself and make informed decisions about her sexual life. But it wasn’t until she saw her children’s public school textbooks that she realized not all sex education classes are alike.
“I saw their textbooks, and there was no information at all, and I’m like, ‘am I gonna have to tell these kids, like, everything?’ As a privileged white person, why did I get this information?” she questioned. “I got it because somebody cared about my future. They had a stake in us doing whatever we wanted to do. And so [I’m thinking] ‘does not every child in Dallas deserve the same thing I deserve? That is why I started NTARUPT,” says Greenberg.
NTARUPT, which stands for North Texas Alliance to Reduce Unintended Pregnancy in Teens, offers “evidence-based and medically accurate sexuality education to parents and teens,” according to its website. Its mission is to “reduce unintended teen pregnancy through innovation, collaboration, and cultural sensitivity to provide all youth in North Texas the tools needed to be self-sufficient before becoming parents. “
“Dallas has the number one highest teen birth rate of all the top twenty largest cities and counties in the country,” says Greenberg, the founder and CEO of NTARUPT. “There are zip codes that coincide with where structural racism and poverty has mostly affected the city. NTARUPT’s lane is getting kids excellent, reliable, nonjudgmental information to make the best choices.”
In the fall of 2022, the conversation surrounding sex education in Texas will be changing. Eighth-grade students will be required to take a sex education course covering healthy relationships, contraception, and human trafficking, all topics recommended by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). However, the Texas Legislature requires parents to opt-in for their children to take the class.
“Who doesn’t want their kid to know about sex abuse and human trafficking?” asks Greenberg.
NTARUPT and its partner organizations hope to be a part of the conversation about what children learn in the classroom and continue to advocate for a change in Texas sex education standards. One of their current challenges is making parents aware that they need to look for and sign the permission slips so their kids can attend sex education classes.
“You have to be active in fighting for the information your child should have,” says Greenberg. “Poll after poll shows that parents really want kids to get this information. Some parents have said, ‘I want to be the one to talk to my kids [about sex], but really what they are saying is, ‘I want to talk to my kids about my values.’ Most parents don’t want to say, ‘these are the ways you can get herpes,’ I don’t think any parent really wants to have that conversation, but it is important that they do talk about their values, like, ‘I don’t think you should be dating this guy who is too old…” explains Greenberg.
Greenwood and her team of community educators hope to partner with school districts and their health advisory committees to educate teachers and kids on how to talk about topics surrounding sex. There is currently work on curricula for middle and high school students and training for teachers on how to address the information with their students.
One of the subjects Greenberg is pushing for in the school sex-ed curriculum is the concept of consent. In preparation for the “Choices Not Chances: Consent Can Be Given and Taken Back” ad campaign, teens were given fifteen short films to watch that spoke about various topics relating to sex education; the messages about consent resonated the most with the teen viewers.
“We also found in talking to teenagers the question came up about what does consent mean? The films explain that just because you start something and say “yes” to one thing doesn’t mean it is a “yes” to everything. We want kids to be empowered and to take control,” said Greenberg. “We had kids come to our educators after class and say, ‘you know, I think I was raped.’ It didn’t occur to them until after having the conversations,” said Greenberg.
NTARUPT’s website for teens, TalkaboutitDallas.com, offers kids the opportunity to make themed films surrounding conversations about consent, a subject which the Texas Education Agency (TEA) did not want to include in the classroom discussion. “They didn’t require consent to be discussed. In all of our education, we do,” explains Greenberg. “They [TEA] want to discuss boundaries…[but] what if you don’t teach someone to recognize if they have consent to touch you, then you’re missing half of the equation.”
NTARUPT serves as the bridge between school-based sex education, which can often solely focus on abstinence, and comprehensive sex education, where teens learn about different types of contraceptives. Greenberg believes that failing to provide all the pertinent information is a disservice to the students.
“Everybody’s gonna have sex one day, right?” says Greenberg. “If you don’t teach kids anything in middle school [about sex] and then they all graduate, they [still] know nothing. So they need age-appropriate information at each stage of their life. Forty percent of the kids will not be abstinent and will have had sex by the time they graduate high school, at least. So we’re failing them if we’re not giving them any real information.”
In general, everyone’s sexual health and needs can look different. Greenberg stresses that kids, particularly in DISD, need to have sex education instructors who are inclusive and “trauma-informed” and who can explain how different types of birth control methods work.
NTARUPT’s goal outside the classroom is to share medically accurate, evidence-based information through community action classes. The classes cater to parents who need help talking to their children about sex, pregnancy prevention, and other topics surrounding one’s sex life.
“Our website is excellent because parents can get information,” says Greenberg. “There is nothing wrong with a parent saying, ‘I don’t know, let me look it up.'”
Open communication between parents and teens is important, she stresses. “If your kid is asking you a question, you need to answer it or figure out the answer. [The question] tells you where they are,” explains Greenberg. “If your kid asks you for birth control, your kid needs birth control. And you can use the opportunity to talk to them, which is good, but you can also get them birth control. We have to listen to our kids.”