Sasha Matsuki, Teens With a Choice Club president and senior

Could you tell me about your role as president?

I founded the club back in my sophomore year and now I’ve been the president for about two years. As the president, the members of the club tell me what they want to do and then I make sure that we have the resources and the availability to do that, so we wanted to learn about how abortions actually work so I set that up, I did all the research, stuff like that, and we’ve done fundraisers and stuff like that. As for sex ed, we’ve had people from planned parenthood come and talk to us about what is good sex ed. They didn’t talk to us, we talked to them, because them talking to us would be against the law, but we’re doing our best to work up to a point where we can really understand what makes good sex education and how we can promote that at CHS.

What have you learned so far from the people at planned parenthood?

Just making sure that the sex ed is comprehensive and medically accurate, and ensures that when kids are learning what they need to learn, it needs to be presented in a way that they actually understand it.

How have you dealt w administration/ laws?

It’s mostly just talking to Mrs. Wiseman and Mr. Andrews our sponsor

As for the laws, they’ve only really prevented us from doing one big thing which is bringing in a speaker to talk about sex ed. That’s against indiana law; speakers and teachers and figures are only allowed to teach abstinence only

What did your speaker talk about?

We didn’t really talk about sex education, we didn’t talk about what is consent stuff like that. We talked about what makes good sex education, how can we talk to our peers about it, and what can we do as students in an environment where abstinence only education is taught to spread good information

Do you think that there have been any measures taken to spread more info in schools?

With the internet, people can find their own information which is a double-edged sword because you can find so much information and so much misinformation. At the same time, I don’t think there really has been. I think indiana has been pretty stuck with just having abstinence only and the only way to get around that is to be a private school.

Thoughts on the opt-in policy?

I think most parents will think that if it’s taking time out of other classes then it won’t really be beneficial because you can find all that stuff on the internet. I think that the system would be a lot better if you could opt out or opt in to a really good set of classes where it’s more comprehensive. With our current curriculum on sex ed, I don’t know if it’s really beneficial one way or the other.

What do you think are the effects of abstinence only education on students?

To expect all students to not have sex until they’re married is absolutely ridiculous. We are at the age where we’re curious about everything, more so than when we were younger and we have a lot of freedom to explore those avenues.

Kids should know what they’re getting into and how to do it safely, especially with something like sex… you should definitely know that you need protection, not only to protect from pregnancies but from STDs, that you should ask for consent, stuff like that. Kids should know what they’re getting into and how to go about it properly and respectfully, so they’re not injuring themself or their partner or causing anything else to happen.

Do you see any changes in the future?

I really don’t think so. With this current administration, they’re not really left-leaning on stuff like that

How have your projects with the club gone so far?

So far I think our fundraisers have had a really good effect… just because we’ve been able to donate to local organizations.This year we really wanna focus on having a seminar or talk on sex ed so people can really see that we’re about more than just that one singular issue.

Michael Greener, Teens for Life president and senior

What is the state of the club right now and what is your vision for the future?

Two years ago, there was an event at Carmel High School. It was the poster being taken down and we had a sponsor for the rest of that year and he could no longer sponsor us. So we’ve been looking for a sponsor since last year and since the beginning of last year we’ve been looking for a sponsor and trying to get one so that’s where we’re at right now, so we need a sponsor. As far as our vision for the club, the club is intended to promote the pro-life message:that life is the best option, that there are options to taking your child, you can put your child up for adoption and things like that. So, we believe that life begins at conception and that there is value in the fetus and baby in the womb, whatever you want to call the child, we believe that he or she has value from the point of conception. Our goal is to promote that. Students for Life of America has Pregnant on Campus, things like that they do, so in the event there was a student on campus that was pregnant then we would want to get in touch with her and talk to her about her options and how we can help her and see what we can do to support her. Things like diaper drives we could run or just being there for her and supporting her because some people may judge her or whatever. That’s another thing, we don’t want to judge people for their decisions. We want to just get the facts out there along with supporting women that are pregnant or promoting the pro-life message, we also want to inform people about the truth using science behind it all or jsut taking arguments people that are pro-choice would use, we will teach people how they can argue against that.

Have you guys been doing anything as a student organization over the past year?

Since we’re normally a (school-sanctioned) club, we haven’t actually met at all for the past year because we haven’t had a place to meet, so unfortunately no.

Could you tell me about your opinion about the bill?

The bill itself is good if it’s going to help parents decide what’s best for their children. If parents think their kid doesn’t need education beyond abstinence only, and the parents want to teach that later, then that is their choice.