Sex Ed Changes At School With 65 Pregnant Teens - Ohio

[Breeze54]

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/education/9680361/detail.html

Sex Ed Changes At School With 65 Pregnant Teens
UPDATED: 10:10 am EDT August 15, 2006

CANTON, Ohio --

An Ohio school board is expanding sex education following the revelation
that 13 percent of one high school's female students were pregnant last year.

There were 490 female students at Timken High School in 2005,
and 65 were pregnant, WEWS-TV in Cleveland reported.

The new Canton school board program promotes abstinence but also will teach
students who decide to have sex how to do so responsibly, bringing the city
school district's health curriculum in line with national standards.
The board made the changes in a vote at its regular meeting Monday.

The Rev. David Morgan served on a committee that developed the lesson plans.
He said the new curriculum moves beyond the "Just Say No" approach.

Health textbooks, older than some students, will be replaced.

more at link....

----------------------

It's about time they joined the real world, I think!
:crazy:

[MikeyJones]

1. Yeah -- like people are really going to remain celebate past 25 by choice

People are getting married FOR THE FIRST TIME nowadays when they're in their 40s. You honestly expect people to wait that fucking long?

[Breeze54]

2. Are you asking me?

No, I think the 'abstinence only' crowd are morons!

[MikeyJones]

20. No, I was just sarcastically asking a question to whoever.....

nobody remains celebate that long. Eventually the NEED to fuck takes over where insanity once stood.

[Breeze54]

22. oh ok...lol!

I was wondering!! :rofl:

And I agree with your statement. Nature eventually wins!

[3waygeek]

33. FWIW,

I've been celibate for 20 years. This was not my choice, rather it was thrust upon me -- the first few years were tough, but it gets easier with time.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. No.

That's probably why I'll never get to wear one of these great hats.

[OneBlueSky]

10. "You honestly expect people to wait that fucking long?" . . .

well . . . yeah! . . .

"how do I know,
the Bible tells me so."
:sarcasm:

(some hymn deep in my long-term memory vault) . . .

[sutz12]

32. Glad you threw in the sarcasm icon.

:)

When the Bible was written....er handed down by Gawd, the average age for marrying your daughter off was around 11 or 12. Not many got to 15 before they were sold off......er.....married. Any young woman over 15 or 16 would cost too much in dowry to be profitable.

[ashling]

3. Sounds like the administration needs remedial instruction

this is funny. :rofl:

[porphyrian]

4. I guess Jesus didn't tell them to pull out. - n/t

[Tenseiga]

6. come on, we all know

that "pulling out" is a pitiful way to prevent pregnancy.

[porphyrian]

9. It's more effective than prayer.

I wasn't advocating "pulling out" over other forms of contraception, but I don't mind making a joke informative.

[obreaslan]

12. They are taught that Americans don't "Cut and Run" .

Only liberal wussies would "pull out" in a time of war.

:rofl:

[porphyrian]

14. Heh, yeah, they're patriotic pregnancies. "Freedom babies." - n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

5. Well, Duh!

Better late than never to catch the clue train, I suppose, Reverend.

[Czolgosz]

8. Tina Fey (ex-Saturday Night Live head writer) commented on this:

"At a high school in Canton, Ohio during the 2004-2005 school year, 64 out of nearly 500 girls became pregnant, and this year, nine girls showed up on the first day of school already pregnant. This may seem kind of drastic, but I think it's time for this school to start teaching my controversial advice book for teenage girls called, 'Your Mouth Can't Get Pregnant.'"

[Der Blaue Engel]

15. .

:rofl:

[gkhouston]

18. 9 girls were already pregnant on the first day of school?

Wonder if they got excused from writing the traditional, "What I Did on My Summer Vacation" essay... :freak:

Or maybe they get to write, "Who I Did...?"

[MissB]

19. Oh dear gawd.

:spray: <==== inappropriate use of smilie, I know.

[Cocoa]

11. that school will need a day care center

set aside two or three classrooms for all the little ones.

[samdogmom]

13. DUH! Good grief what were they thinking!

The sad result of their "idea" is that we're going to see a lot more stories just like this one! This was already established before Bush took office. I can't believe how far back in time Bush has taken this country. We've got a lot of catching up to do! I just hope this story gets mainstream attention so others know how bogus the abstinence teachings are!

[Ms. Toad]

30. Unfortunately, its not "their" idea...its the law in Ohio

Warning: :rant:

(§ 3313.60.11) § 3313.6011. Venereal disease education to emphasize abstinence.

(A) As used in this section, "sexual activity" has the same meaning as in section 2907.01 of the Revised Code.

(B) Instruction in venereal disease education pursuant to division (A)(5)(c) of section 3313.60 of the Revised Code shall emphasize that abstinence from sexual activity is the only protection that is one hundred per cent effective against unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and the sexual transmission of a virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

(C) In adopting minimum standards under section 3301.07 of the Revised Code, the state board of education shall require course material and instruction in venereal disease education courses taught pursuant to division (A)(5)(c) of section 3313.60 of the Revised Code to do all of the following:

(1) Stress that students should abstain from sexual activity until after marriage;

(2) Teach the potential physical, psychological, emotional, and social side effects of participating in sexual activity outside of marriage;

(3) Teach that conceiving children out of wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child's parents, and society;

(4) Stress that sexually transmitted diseases are serious possible hazards of sexual activity;

(5) Advise students of the laws pertaining to financial responsibility of parents to children born in and out of wedlock;

(6) Advise students of the circumstances under which it is criminal to have sexual contact with a person under the age of sixteen pursuant to section 2907.04 of the Revised Code.

(D) Any model education program for health education the state board of education adopts shall conform to the requirements of this section.

(E) On and after March 18, 1999, and notwithstanding section 3302.07 of the Revised Code, the superintendent of public instruction shall not approve, pursuant to section 3302.07 of the Revised Code, any waiver of any requirement of this section or of any rule adopted by the state board of education pursuant to this section.

HISTORY: 147 v H 189 (Eff 3-18-99); 149 v S 1. Eff 9-11-2001.

AND there is funding available to teach abstinence only classes ($8.1 million federal dollars into Ohio in 2004)- which translates into a large industry teaching that all sexual activity outside of marriage (of course, traditionally defined) is evil. http://abednet.tripod.com/ http://www.ohioabstinencecampaign.org/ http://www.ohiomarriageresources.org/rac12.htm http://www.daytonlife.org/gtf_ae.html (But See this study: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=26079 )

We had several conversations with the health instructor and the superintendent when this came up in the 8th grade for our daughter. Most of the literature used by the particular little approved, federally funded, "educational group" was factually incorrect (including stuff created by an individual terminated Bush, the Texas governor, for playing too fast and loose with the facts.) "Fortunately," our daughter was in the hospital and missed all but a day or two of the "education."

...although it would have been fun to sit in on the class (which we planned to do) and challenge them as to exactly how these little venereal critters knew that my spouse was fair game for infection because our monogamous same gender marriage of 25 years is not legally recognized - yet knew not to infect my sister-in-law from whatever her philandering husband might be bringing home because the state deems their marriage worthy of recognition

Not to mention that we do not need to abstain to be 100% protected from pregnancy :)

Ok...Breathe...

:rant:

[Breeze54]

31. Nice rant!

:hi:

[OzarkDem]

35. Ohio Dept of Health Is Awful

and Mean Jean Schmidt is the poster girl for bad GOP government in the Statehouse. These people put insane policies into place and strip every dime of funding they can from crucial programs.

[Yupster]

50. But the teen pregnancy rate

has been rising tremendously for 30 years. It's been rising when there was little sex ed. It's been rising when there's been all kinds of sex ed. We really do need a major societal discussion about this because unmarried teens having babies leads to lots of bad results for society.

I don't think different sex ed teaching is the reason why the unmarried pregnancy rate has risen so alarmingly over the last 30 years. Senator Moynihan warned this was coming over 30 years ago and the problem is now here.

So what's the causes and solutions? Why are kids having so many more babies today than they were 40 years ago? Forty years ago there was no birth control available to teens and pretty much no sex ed, and yet there weren't as many high schoolers having babies.

Suggestions?

[ikri]

16. "Just Say No"

That worked really well during the 80's and Reagan's War on Drugs. I mean, no one takes drugs any more do they? :sarcasm:

Why the hell did they even consider that it would work with an even more popular pastime?

[regnaD kciN]

17. Thanks for playing "Figuring Out The Obvious"...!!!

:crazy:

[LWolf]

21. Oops. I read your subject line as:

"Sex Changes At School With 65 Pregnant Teens"

I was thinking, "WTF? How in the hell are all those students getting sex changes, and then how do they end up pregnant?"

:spray:

Oh... Sex ED changes. I hope it helps.

Thorough education and liberal access to birth control doesn't always help, as I have good cause to know. The young have more faith in "it won't happen to me" than they do to facts. I have both a son and a grandson resulting from the "it won't happen to me" method of birth control, and no information on or access to birth control was withheld.

[Breeze54]

26. lol... I see your point but I didn't write the article title!

:rofl:

Got your attention though, didn't it? ;)

[LWolf]

43. It sure did,

even though I didn't read it correctly. ;)

[countryjake]

23. From the Canton Repository

Here's what was dropped from that article which you linked to:


http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=302247&Category=9

~snip~

The Rev. David Morgan of Calvary Presbyterian Church served as a member of the committee to develop the curriculum along with health and physical education teachers.

Morgan told the board he knew there was a problem with the school’s curriculum when a member of his congregation came to him. At 15, her unintended pregnancy also cost her her boyfriend, who dumped her because “everyone knows you can’t get pregnant the first time.”

That kind of misinformation is what Morgan doesn’t want to hear.

“Sexual activity is a decision, and we are expecting them to make a decision without accurate information,” he said.

[Breeze54]

27. Thanks for the filler!

:hi:

[Bigmack]

24. With that pregnancy rate....

they need better sex ed, alright.

They also need some B.F.Goodrich-weight condoms and some vaginal spackle!

[Lady President]

25. The town is in turmoil

I think this is just an obvious sign of what is happening in that community. I might be wrong, isn't this the same Timken that Bush* made famous-- gave a speech about the wonderful economy at the Timken plant, then a year later the plant closed? I'm guessing that the whole community is having problems-- depression, unemployment, working multiple minimum wage jobs. Clearly, they need to teach the kids real sex ed. to have a chance for a better future, but I think the problem is worse than kids having sex.

Terribly sad...

[Selatius]

28. Obviously, abstinence only is WORKING! KEEP IT UP!

It means God is blessing all these children with immaculate conceptions! Because God said you should consume all of the earth's resources! And you can't do that if your population isn't expanding at an unsustainable rate!

:sarcasm:

[Tesha]

39. "KEEP IT UP!"??? Isn't that part of the problem? ;-) (NT)

[Breeze54]

42. He,he,he!

:rofl:

[leesa]

29. How's that abstinance training working out for ya?

[knitter4democracy]

34. If I remember right

That's the high school my FIL graduated from. We're driving down there this weekend, and now I have something to tease them about. ;)

Seriously, though, what were they thinking?! If you don't teach the truth, kids will make crap up to fill in the blanks. That one girl whose boyfriend left her "because you can't get pregnant the first time" is just another victim of this madness. Sheesh!

Oh, and I went to an evangelical Christian college. I went to college with kids who'd never had sex ed, who'd always been pulled out of class when it was covered and yet never taught anything at home. I spent a lot of the time furious over that, especially since it got around that I had been taught and knew what the truth was (and that I wasn't embarrassed to talk about anything, even though I'd never dated or had any experience). I had to hold a friend's hand while she waited for the results of a pregnancy test there was no way was going to be positive just so her idiot fiance would touch her again. I had many friends have scares and then spend time worrying when there was no need. It was horrific, and anyone who says that abstinence education only is the way to go needs to spend some time with college kids who haven't had anything else.

[Breeze54]

37. I agree with everything you said!

I went to catholic school and they didn't teach us squat
about sex, back then, except the biology.
No real, useful info though, about contraception.
Duh! (like catholic school would teach contraception!) :yoiks:

They did 'explain' the 'rhythm method'. I ended up dating a musician!:rofl:

I was pretty clueless at 17! My oldest sister educated me.
It's a crime, not to teach these kids the truth including facts, imho!

[knitter4democracy]

38. I taught at Catholic schools before I had my kids.

There were times I was bluntly asked things, and I answered them as carefully as I could. I felt like my hands were tied (we needed my job to eat, so I couldn't risk getting fired), but I also let the kids know where I stood. I often would ask my sexually active students, if they brought it up, if they were "being safe," and sometimes they'd look down and mumble something, and then I'd tell them to be smart, look it up, and do it as safely as possible. They understood.

[Sapere aude]

36. How many signed virgin pledges I wonder?

What we need is more gay sex then there wouldn't be as many pregnancies. Problem is that might lead to gay marriage and we wouldn't want that. Remember when that Clinton's Surgeon General said we need to teach kids how to masturbate? Might as well if we are teaching abstinence.

Kids are going to figure it out and do it no matter what you teach them.

[ikojo]

40. Ya think the books need updated?

:sarcasm:

Wow!

[depakid]

41. We hadn't had many whacky Ohio stories for awhile

Then all of a sudden we get like three on the same day!

Abstinence only "education" has proven in study after to study to be counter productive. Taxpayers are literally PAYING to increase teen pregnancy and STD rates.

Of course, Republicans don't do science, so it's pretty tough to get them to read the studies. They have to see things right up close- so close it smacks them in the face.

[BluePatriot]

44. *blink blink* that many? Geez (nt)

[Yupster]

45. What has changed so much with kids?

When I went to school 30-40 years ago we got virtually no sex education (black and white movies from the 1950's like the one in Dodgeball) and pregnancies were rare. I'm sure they happened, but I went to a large city high school and never knew a classmate who got pregnant. I played on the basketball team and I think I was pretty well connected, but never knew a kid who was pregnnt.

Kids are kids, so what's changed so drastically since I left school? It's not a drop in sex ed because we got virtually none. I'm sure they get more than that now. It's not that birth control is less available today than it was because it was not available to us at all. (not that most of us needed it anyway.)

I do know the change happened pretty rapidly from the mid-sixties to 1980's because I was a teacher in the 80's and pregnancy was out of control in my school where I taught ninth grade. I had one class with three pregnant girls (showing) at the same time out of maybe 12-14 girls in the class. This was around 1990, and by then girls would bring their babies up to school and all the other girls would circle around them oohing and ahhing. The change from 15 years earlier was most dramatic.

PS - Long post but time for embarrassing sex-ed story of the 60's. I was in 7th or 8th grade (12-13 years) and we were watching an old black and white health film and the scene is a young guy (13-15?) in a doctor's office and the doctor was explaining changes in puberty while the guy was in his underpants sitting on the examining table kind of in the background. Sometimes they would separate boys and girls for these films, but this one was when the whole class was together. Anyway, the boy walks up to stand next to the explaining doctor and to my shock pulls his underpants down to his knees. I can still remember the gasp, probably from boys and girls alike as the kid stood there while the doctor explained genital changes to young men during puberty. It seems like he stood there for 2 minutes, but it was probably 10 seconds, but it wasn't half a second. No pointing or touching.

Almost 40 years later I wonder what happened there? Was it a film for boys only and the teacher screwed up? One thing I'm sure of is there was no naked girl when they were talking about girls. The film used diagrams for that part.

Anyway, when the film ended, everyone kind of stared and looked around at each other with a WTF look. Boys and girls both looked embarrassed (I sure was). I'm sure the girls in the class liked it lots better than the boys, but no one ever said anything about it. That was kind of typical 1950's mentality I think. Today there would be lawsuits, firings and Fox News would be live from the school every night.

Anyway, a brief embarrassing note from 40 years ago.

[Ezlivin]

49. What changed? The rise of a ubiquitous media

If you like to read, I suggest picking up "Bowling Alone" by Robert Putman.

I, too, grew up in a time when we didn't have much sex education, no drug education and no drug testing. Yet we managed to do very well socially.

The difference is the pervasive nature of today's media. Try to escape it. Today we have to actually work out how to leave behind our cellphones, iPods, laptops and 24/7 news hookups when we go on "vacation". (Which are no longer vacations, but working vacations for most.)

[MissB]

51. Didn't we hide the pregnant unwed girls better back then?

I think that is all that changed.

I have a half brother who is in his late 40s. The birth mother's family hid the birth mother and the pregnancy not only from my father, but from the rest of the town.

I have a brother who my parents adopted just after his birth. His birth mom was shuttled out of state to finish her pregnancy and give birth. One of my aunts became pregnant around the same time- she took a long trip to another relative's house until she gave birth and then gave the girl up for adoption. There was more stigma and shame attached to being an unwed pregnant girl.

I think we've just removed some of the shame and stigma from being an unwed mother. I don't think that is a bad thing necessarily.

[Yupster]

54. That's a good point

Back when I was a kid, a pregnant girl would supposedly disappear until the baby was born and adopted away. I'm sure that was true, but I'm sure there were a lot less of them than there are today.

I never knew a single kid who was pregnant in high school. Is there any kid in high school today that can say that?

You're also right that there was a lot of shame associated with being an unmarried pregnant teen. There's no doubt that shame has been much reduced today on the issue. I guess there's both good and bad in that.

I really do think we have to try to address the unmarried pregnancy rate, especially among the young because I just saw somewhere that the latest census data showed a 50 % Hispanic birthrate to unmarrieds, and the African-American unmarried rate remains around 70 %. I don't know what the Anglo rate is (30 %?) but it's creeping up too I'm sure.

There used to be a statistic which I don't know if it's still true or not but it was something like if you graduate high school, don't get married until then, and don't have kids until you're married, you have only a 6 % chance of living in poverty. If you break those three simple rules, you'r poverty chances go sky high, as do your chances for your kids getting in trouble with the law, dropping out, living in poverty, etc.

I think it's a huge problem.

[kestrel91316]

46. So how's that "abstinence only" thing workin' out for ya, Canton?

[warrens]

47. Abstinence-only is a wild success

If you're Babies R Us, that is.

[bleedingheart]

48. Where are the men that fathered these children?

and as much as I think sex-ed should be taught in schools...where were these kids parents...both the girls and the boys???

[Yupster]

52. Where are the fathers?

Probably sitting in the same school, maybe a grade or two ahead, maybe in the same classroom. Funny though and I'm thinking back to all the pregnant ninth graders I taught and they never really talked about the dad. If someone else was ever talked about besides the mom and baby, it was the mother's mother who was usually the one taking care of the baby.

There were a few boys in the school who had reputations of having multiple kids which was pretty weird for ninth graders. I had the sense that there were a lot fewer fathers than mothers, and the fathers had more kids than the mothers.

[knitter4democracy]

53. One study said that 60% of the fathers are over the age of 20.

In other words, most of the fathers aren't in that school at all. I know that when I taught high school that many of my students were dating college-aged guys, which I found disturbing. Some boyfriends were in their mid-twenties with sixteen and seventeen year olds.

[Yupster]

55. Ineresting knitter

I don't doubt that you're right.

That's where I'd ask where the girl's dad was. In my day, he'd be the one keeping 22 year olds away from his 16 year old daughter. That may be another consequence of so many kids growing up without dads these days.

[knitter4democracy]

56. I think you're right.

Many of my students dating older guys had both parents at home, but their parents worked amazingly long hours. *sigh* They also hid a lot from their parents.

I'm going to have to see if I can find that study. I wonder what the sample size was.