The Importance of teaching Sex Education to the Special Needs Population
They are understanding safe and healthy sexual activity, learning how to confirm or deny consent. And this is huge. And I will come back to this in a bit. Identifying physical boundaries and exercising bodily autonomy, naming and identifying your own body parts, understanding the components of a healthy relationship, developing healthy body image and self esteem, and establishing a sense of self worth
Kayla Danford
@MissKaylaSue · 1:56
Hey, Leanne, first of all, yeah, definitely kudos to you for being able to remain professional in that conversation while giving the necessary information to correct your colleague. I know when I first heard what she said while listening to your podcast, I probably was not as professional. The words that I screamed out were bullshit. But you know me, I'm pretty blunt
Jeremiah Myer
@Jeremiah73 · 2:07
The first thing you would find out is who is boyfriend and girlfriend, and their desire to make that connection is as strong and as compelling as anybody else's. So kudos to the work you do and you are spot on. So thanks. Have a great day. Bye
Thanks, Kayla. I really appreciate it. Yeah. What I said in terms of to my colleague. Yes. That was professional. Now, in my head, I was like, you. I was like, you, are so full of shit, lady. It stinks. But what I said was different. But in my head, that's. Yeah, my head versus what I actually said
And it's very interesting to me because these, quote, special needs kids or however they're being labeled, a lot of them, honestly, I find a lot of my kiddos, not all but a lot of them tend to be more social and a lot of them date compared to quote regular ed kids that don't always date and may be socially awkward. You know, it just depends on the individual. But yeah, they are no different and they're incredible people. So thank you
Tanya Coles
@MsColes77 · 2:19
Special needs children definitely need that protection. They definitely need to be cared for and looked after because they are especially vulnerable because of their young age and just the general lack of understanding that a lot of young children have as it relates to sex
Kayla Danford
@MissKaylaSue · 0:49
Hey, Leanne. Yeah, definitely. This is something that I am very passionate about because it's also a social justice issue for our girls and our boys as students. You know, all children, I'm just going to put this bottom line, deserve to have their first lesson about their body
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
I know I probably shouldn't be surprised, but I still am when people hold such ideas or thinking. And I'm really glad that you were there to have that conversation with your colleague and that you're there as a resource to your students just to affirm the things that you've said and are probably doing behind the scenes that you may not have talked about here, the importance of what you're doing. So I've included a link here that talks about late diagnosed women who are autistic
It. Thank you so much for your input. Yeah, we're all human, you know? And it really surprises me. Like I said, all the years I've been teaching that, I still hear people with their weird, weird thoughts. I really appreciate your kindness in everything you had to say because, yeah, these children, they deserve a shot in life, too, and they deserve to be educated and valued and just honored for the phenomenal human beings that they are
But the importance of letting them know they are safe, they are valued, and that it is always a safe place with me is the absolute most important thing I can do for these kiddos, along with educating the public and being an advocate. So thank you. I really, really appreciate your input as well and I hope all is well with you. Thanks. Bye