Tell Them proudly presents Traci Young Cooper, who currently serves as the Director of Richland County School District One’s Office of Extended-Day Programs and a member of the New Morning Foundation Board of Trustees. Traci was named South Carolina Teacher of the Year in 2002, and served as a National Afterschool Ambassador from 2007-2008.
Watch Traci as she discusses the importance of reaching all students and young people- especially those from non-traditional fmailies. Traci also invites you to join Tell Them’s Virtual March, and help demand more responsible reproductive health policies from our state legislature.
Tags: Columbia, Comprehensive Sex Ed, Traci Young Cooper, TTWomen, Virtual March
Traci Young Cooper’s approach in talking about age-appropriate sex education is, in the simplest terms, what the state of South Carolina needs to come to. I come from a place where there was no question in teaching children and young adults about healthy decisions, and being in this state for three years now, I feel blessed that I was brought up in a home where it was okay to ask questions. But now, in my college years, I am acquainted with people who don’t know the entire truth about healthy decision making. This state needs to step up and share Ms. Traci Young-Cooper’s thought that education about healthy decision making should not be an option, it should be a given.
If sex education can prevent one teen pregnancy, it will have made an enormous impact. Few teen mothers have any prenatal care. They deliver premature
infants who require hundreds of thousands of healthcare dollars.
These infants often have lifeling disabilities and the teen mother is unable to cope
with them.
Our children must be armed with knowledge to allow them to make smart decisions. We can’t expect our children to know what they need to know if we aren’t teaching it to them. As a school board trustee, I am committed to ensuring the success of all the children in my district, and that includes making sure they are healthy and receiving age appropriate sex education. Thank you, Tell Them, for your efforts!