John Oliver Recruits Celebrities To Make The Sex Ed Video American High School Students Have Been Waiting For
John Oliver may hail from England, but even he recognizes the sorry state of sex education in the United States. The host of Last Week Tonight took ample time out of Sunday’s episode to discuss how this country’s lack of official standards when it comes to sex ed can be downright dangerous. Most states don’t even consider medical accuracy and others preach abstinence to a classroom full of raging hormones.
So instead of leaving sex ed in the hands of the American school system, Oliver decided to recruit some celebrity friends, including Laverne Cox, Kristen Schaal, and Nick Offerman, to show the U.S. what sex ed should really look like. The advice and drawings may be NSFW, but they’re also engaging, straightforward, and — most importantly — anatomically correct.
"Teaching sex ed in schools is really important for obvious reasons," Oliver said. "No parent wants to talk to their kids about sex, and no kid wants to talk about sex with their parents. That is why when you're watching a movie together and there's a sex scene, everyone becomes motionless and silently begs for the merciful release of death."
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only 22 states and the District of Columbia require that all public schools teach sex ed — 20 of which actually mandate sex ed and HIV education. Thirty-three states require that students receive some type of education regarding HIV/AIDS. Also, 35 states and the District of Columbia allow parents to opt-out of sex ed classes on behalf of their children.