'Thank You For All That You Do': Local Initiative Shows Appreciation For Sex Educators

Notes to teachers can be found on Amplify Youth Health Collective's website.

“From a mom of a Tulsa teen, thank you for always continuously sharing your knowledge to help keep our community safe and strong. Thank you so much Tulsa sex educators,” read Executive Director Heather Duvall.

“Caring trusted adults, they’re highly qualified and well trained and they're making such a difference in the lives of young people,” she said.

Duvall is celebrating Sex Ed Week of Action. She says that action is needed more than ever in Oklahoma.

“We are still the 4th highest state in the nation for our teen birth rate, so we’re seeing great declines, but we know we need to continue and sex ed in schools is one important component of that,” she said.

Related Story: Teen Birth Rate In Tulsa County Is On The Decline; Still Higher Than The National Average

Duvall's organization helps support sex education in schools and this week is all about celebrating the people who do that work. Duvall says sex education is about far more than pregnancy or STI prevention.

“It's about learning about healthy relationships, and how to identify good relationships and it's about consent and it's about understanding how your body works,” she said.

And by implementing evidence-based and medically accurate sex ed in Tulsa schools, she says they’ve seen promising results.

“It can really lay the foundation for a lifetime of positive health outcomes,” Duvall said.

In addition to all the community messages - she wrote her own note of gratitude.

“Thank you for all that you do,” she wrote.

“There’s a need for it, there’s a community need for it, there are people who are advocating for it and so we’re making sure that we’re able to meet that need,” said Duvall.

Duvall says they plan to actually deliver the thank you notes to sex education teachers on Thursday.