Shelby Knox grew up a Southern Baptist in the conservative town of Lubbock, Texas. Now almost 19, she is the subject of a P.O.V. documentary The Education of Shelby Knox, which chronicles the controversy over sex education in her district's public schools. When you were 15, you pledged abstinence in a True Love Waits ceremony. When it comes to premarital sex and marriage, what do you want in terms of your own life?
For me, I think that when I find the person that I want to have sex with, I will, whether it's before our wedding night or... the important thing is I have the education to protect myself.
As for marriage, it's not something that I see myself doing for a very long time. I'm very independent and don't really want to enter into a partnership with someone when I'm so selfish with all my career aspirations and things like that, so I don't see marriage for myself for quite a long time.
In an ideal world, would it be your preference for everyone to wait until marriage?
I think that everyone should wait to have sex until they feel that they are emotionally and physically ready to have sex and they have the education to protect themselves from STDs and unwanted pregnancies.
When you started high school in Lubbock, Texas, what was the school's official policy about sex education?
The Lubbock Independent School District high schools have an abstinence-only policy, which means they do not discuss condoms and contraception except in terms of failure rates. And they teach abstinence as the only acceptable behavior for teens that are not married.
You started campaigning for comprehensive sex ed at your high school. What did you see at your school in Texas that made you do this?
I started seeing girls my age getting pregnant. I started seeing kids my age getting STDs and disappearing from school and not having any information about what was happening to them. I heard the myths about teen pregnancy-if you had sex the first time you couldn't get pregnant, or use two condoms, it's better protection. Really scary myths like that. I realized that a lack of sex education in the schools was putting the kids at risk.
Some would say that high school students wouldn't want to ask their teachers about birth control.
I think that high school students would much rather ask their teachers than their parents or church officials, just from personal experience. I think that if a teacher or a nurse or a counselor is allowed to answer questions, then they would get a lot more.
What are the teachers in Lubbock required to say?
They are required to say that abstinence is the only acceptable behavior and if they have any other questions they should direct that to their parents.
What would happen to a teacher if a student asked about preventing pregnancy, and the teacher, for example, described a method of birth control?
