In Lubbock, Texas, when students ask teachers about sex, the teachers must reply, "Abstinence is the only way to prevent STDs and teen pregnancy." The town has the highest percentage of teen pregnancies and acquired STDs per year in Texas and one of the highest in the country. "The Education of Shelby Knox," an award-winning documentary screened last Thursday, chronicles Knox and Lubbock Youth Commission members' efforts to integrate comprehensive sex education into their school's curriculum. The film came to Bowdoin two years ago, but this time Knox and co-director Rose Rosenblatt were here to answer viewers' questions.
The film follows Knox, who grew up attending a Southern Baptist church, throughout her high school career. As a teen, she attended a program called "Love, Sex, and Dating," run by church pastor Ed Ainsworth. Ainsworth currently gives a presentation to more than 200 Texas junior high schools called "True Love Waits," where students vow in front of their parents and God to abstain from sex until marriage. Knox took the pledge when she was 15.
Knox said in a question-and-answer sesion after Thursday's screening, "I do not think that [the programs] are a healthy mechanism" to prevent teenagers from having sex, calling the pledges "unsafe."
As a high school sophomore, Knox joined the Lubbock Youth Commission, an organization sponsored by the mayor to give a voice to Lubbock youth. Concerned with Ainsworth's version of sex education (the documentary includes a scene in which Ainsworth warns that an STD can be transmitted through a handshake), the group campaigned for comprehensive sex education in the public schools. After Knox and the youth commission received considerable media coverage, the school board allowed them to present their case. Their arguments, however, did not convince the conservative Christian-dominated board.
Knox's conservative parents were "devoted" to her, said Rosenblatt, but were concerned about her increasingly liberal attitudes and the stress of the commission. Despite the opposition, Knox persisted.
"Every single person has the right to medically accurate information about their health before they make sexual decisions," she said during the question-and-answer session March 29.
Knox also emerged as an activist for gay students struggling to form a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at their high school. The commission did not support Knox, because the mayor threatened to dissolve the group, and the commission preferred to remain intact rather than support controversial campaigns. The decision resulted in the dissolution of the comprehensive sex education campaign and Knox's resignation from the commission.
By her senior year, Knox was a committed supporter of the GSA formation effort and was in the process of suing the school board. Her parents were shocked when Knox announced she was a liberal Democrat, but continued to support her. Her mother even attended a counter-protest to one started by the organization "God Hates Fags" in response to the lawsuit, which the gay activists lost.
Knox said Thursday that she will not return to Lubbock to lobby for comprehensive sex education because she "would not be a good activist" there. While the film was "an eye-opening experience" for many, "most people didn't take the next step" regarding comprehensive sex education, although Ed Ainsworth now only gives his presentation at six of the 11 junior high schools in Lubbock.
The documentary took three years to film. Rosenblatt, who co-directed the film with Marion Lipshutz through their company InCite Pictures, said, "No one took us seriously, which was wonderful because it gave us a lot freedom to go about and do what we wanted to."
While the initial premises for the film was to investigate "sex education and how much money the federal government is putting into it," it "shifted to a coming of age story about a girl and her family."
Rosenblatt and Lipshutz worked "to break down barriers and gain trust" with the Knox family and the result is "a story about a girl and her parents and learning about sex education along the way."
Rosenblatt said, "You can never show your subject the film before it's finished," but Knox added that she "loved the movie" and considers it an "honest representation" of her efforts.
The film has won numerous awards, including Excellence in Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival.
Knox will graduate from the University of Texas at Austin this year and travel the country promoting comprehensive sex education, gay rights, and women's rights. She considers herself a "spiritual person" and believes that "God, or whatever It is, wants you to love one another and accept each other."
She acknowledges that her beliefs "make a lot of people angry, but that's how I work it out."
Knox added, "The Christian faith is not a political party." She and her parents "respect each other's opinions," and her parents "are so proud that it sort of overcomes any awkwardness of the situation."
Although in the film she said she wanted to run for president, that is no longer one of her goals; "I'm not a good politician. I'm a good activist."