The Honorable Robert P.

Casey Jr
393 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-6324

29th May 2016

Joni Neal
YSU Nursing Student
475 Georgetown St
Sharpsville, PA 16150

Dear Senator Casey,

Today I am writing to you as a senior in the nursing program at

Youngstown State University, a mother, and a child of a teen
mother. I am writing to you in regards to S.2765 Real Education for
Healthy Youth Act of 2016 sponsored by Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ).
This bill promotes access to lifesaving, comprehensive, inclusive
information on everything from prevention of disease and
pregnancy to dating violence and sexual harassment on college
campuses-all with the goal of helping young people lead happier,
healthier lives. The information is required to be evidence based
and medically accurate and promotes critical thinking and self-
efficacy. I believe that if a little bit of education can keep a teen
from contracting an STI, or a young girl from getting pregnant, or a
young boy from being bullied, then that education should be given.
Some statistics from the CDC include that:

Young people ages 1525 contract half of the 19

million Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) each year,
despite making up only a quarter of the sexually active
population
The U.S. has the highest rate of unintended teen
pregnancy among comparable countries
3/4 of LGBT students report harassment; 56% report
feeling unsafe; and nearly a third skipped at least one day of
school in the month prior to reporting due to concerns about
their safety.
Approximately one in three young women in the U.S.
experiences physical, emotional, or verbal abuse from a
dating partner.
 The children of teenage mothers are more likely to
have lower school achievement and to drop out of high
school, have more health problems, be incarcerated at some
time during adolescence, give birth as a teenager, and face
unemployment as a young adult.

As you can see, the issues that can be resolved by the education
required by this bill are far reaching and varied, but the resolution is
the same. When we give our youth the tools they need to make the
right decisions, they are so much more likely to make those
decisions. I have witnessed the effects of a lack of education on
these matters first hand, time and time again. My mother became
pregnant at the age of 16 and due to a lack of knowledge and
support, ended up marrying and staying with my abusive father for
18 years. My sister in law became pregnant at the age of 17
because she didnt know how hard raising a baby was going to be.
She also held some strange beliefs about safe sex that needed to
be dispelled and that wouldnt have been if I hadnt had been there.
A lot of teens do not get the education and support they need at
home and so should be receiving it in school., together with their
peers. With this bill, we could save lives, literally and
metaphorically: less suicides, less abortions, less depression, less
anxiety, less PTSD, less school dropouts.

In closing, I respectfully ask for your support in the passage of

S.2765. I wholeheartedly believe that this bill will help improve the
lives of adolescents across the nation and for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Joni Neal