In many ways, Eden Prairie is an above average high school, but not when it comes to sex. About 35 percent of 11th graders surveyed last spring by the Minnesota Department of Edu- cation had had sex before. Compared to that state-wide average, in the EPHS junior class, 21 percent of males and 14 percent of females have had sex. These numbers have stayed constant in the past six years, though other numbers relating to relationships have changed.

Relationship violence, both physical and verbal, has decreased since 2013 for every surveyed group at EPHS except for 11th grade females. For this demographic, there has been a slight in- crease in the number of women who have encountered physical or verbal violence in a relation- ship.

With heterosexual sex, the biggest concern is often pregnancy. Condom use has signi cantly improved at EPHS since 2013. In the 2013 survey, 62 percent of female 9th graders who have had sex reported not using a condom the last time they did so. In 2019, that number was 0 percent.

More troublesome data are the responses of female 11th graders to the same question, whose trend was inverse of that of the 9th grade girls. The percent of 11th grade girls who did not use a condom the last time they had sex doubled from 2013 to 2019.

Overall, trends in sex and relationships have not increased or decreased drastically. Though it may seem like everyone around you is having sex, that simply is not the case.