According to results from the 2016 Washington state Healthy Youth Survey, more than 50 percent of Washington's high school seniors have engaged in sexual intercourse.
For sophomores, many not yet old enough to qualify for a driver's license, 25 percent say they have had sex.
For eighth-graders, that figure is 8 percent.
It is likely many of these children had never talked to an adult or teacher about sex prior to engaging in the act themselves. That means no talk about condoms, sexually transmitted diseases, birth control or consent.
While parents share responsibility, Washington's schools - which are currently not required to offer sex education course - are also failing these children.
Some lawmakers are hoping to change that and have introduced legislation in the House that would require public schools to offer comprehensive sex education courses by Sept. 1, 2020.
The bill would require curriculum to be age-appropriate, medically and scientifically accurate and include information about affirmative consent. The curriculum would also introduce abstinence and other methods to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The courses would teach students how to identify and respond to abusive behaviors in relationships and how to encourage healthy relationships.
Parents would have to be informed of the curriculum and would have the ability to opt their children out.
"Young people deserve to have information, they deserve to have resources, and they deserve to have the skills they need to protect their health and also build their future without shame and without judgment," the bill's sponsor, Sen. Claire Wilson, D-Federal Way, said.
Of course there are still some legislators - like Rep. Vicki Kraft, R-Vancouver - stuck in the 1950s who believe an abstinence-only approach is best. Kraft, during a recent public hearing on the bill, criticized current curriculum offered in Battle Ground, where she said the district teaches grade-school children how to put on condoms and "promotes" the transsexual lifestyle.
"Why would we promote that type of confusion for our young children," Kraft asked. "I am not against the transgender community. I have met with some of those folks - lovely people. I am talking curriculum that absolutely introduces confusion when it's not the public education's place to do so, nor should we be using taxpayer dollars to fund 'how-to-have-sex' curriculum for young children."
We suspect Kraft would have benefited from sex education courses in her youth.
We hope the Legislature moves forward with this bill and doesn't fail yet another generation of youth.
