A person claiming to be a Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School student left the following thought-provoking comment on my blog with regard to comments left by other students. I don't know the identity of the commenter, but if he or she really is an HCC student, it gives additional insight into the situation at that school and London, Ontario's publicly funded Catholic schools in general.
The commenter, using the handle "Who's to blame?", writes:
I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed over the recent blog about HCC. You had visited my school during this week and I was so shocked by the comments that were placed on your blog. It deeply saddened me and revealed a very confused teenage society in Canada. It is clear that NOT all Canadian youth acts this way and I do believe the internet allows for many cowards who hide behind words. However, what does this tell us about our Catholic institutions? What does this tell us about our Catholic youth? Now many of us are not practicing Catholics, but regardless when it comes to sex I find us all in agreement that sex isn't a big deal.
But really it is!
We have grown up in such a media polluted society that if you are not telling jokes or flashing pictures we just don't get the message. Classrooms are filled with videos about sex, but that is because teachers have given up on us. We know it all! Yet, we really know so little.
I'm not sure what the answer is to helping teenagers talk about sex? Maybe a lot of the blame falls on parents who simply stop parenting when it comes to sex. They throw it in the hands of teachers. When they cannot relate to us or have little time the preasure falls on our Catholic School system. Perhaps parents should be present at these presentations. Perhaps parents should be reading their childs blogs and asking questions...where are these Catholic parents?
I know where mine are...ignoring me in another room!
