Clark College held its very first “Yes Means Yes!” Sexual Health and Education Fair in Gaiser Student Center on Tuesday from 10 a.m to 3 p.m.
An aisle of informational booths was set up with members from the YWCA, the Cascade Aids Project, Planned Parenthood and a non-profit health and social services organization, 211 info. There were also booths from Clark’s Office of Diversity and Equity, and a button making station for the Counseling and Health Center.
Audrey Miller, the Regional Field Organizer for Planned Parenthood said not many get equal information regarding sexual health. “You’d be surprised that in our community, people in Clark County are getting inequitable sex ed,” Miller said.
Miller also said the opportunity to have a booth at Clark allows students to obtain sexual health information on their own terms.
Gaiser Student Center was packed with students who roamed these community sponsored booths or sat at tables, devouring free pizza provided by the Vancouver Pizza Company.
“Once you get an STD it can really impact your life.” said Clark student Sarah Kopyscinski. She said she believes it’s important for everyone to be educated on sexual health whether they’re sexually active or not.
Throughout the fair, different speakers explained how to stay healthy in sexual relationships, and avoid sexual assault.
A self–defense demonstration was also featured at 11 a.m.
The organizer of the sexual education fair, Summer Brown, is a human development instructor as well as a counselor at Clark.
Brown said, “I worked at a sexual assault crisis center in grad school so I’ve always been very aware and mindful of sexual health and sexual violence/assault. When I got to Clark and found out that there wasn’t something like that, I figured it was something that needed to happen.”Another student who attended the fair, Vladimir Roca, said that he would like to see Clark host more events like this.
“They give you condoms, dental dams, and having events like this for students is important,” Roca said. “Because one, some people can’t afford it and two, some people are too embarrassed to get it elsewhere.”
Brown said she hopes to make the event annual at Clark. “Ideally, it would be something that happened more regularly, even if that’s once a month where there is an event about interpersonal violence or sexual health,” she said.
