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Saturday, October 20, 2007
“Parental void helps fuel problem of teen sex, drug abuse”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
She waited for the firestorm after the Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services released its survey on student behavior.
The questionnaire, completed in spring 2006, showed that kids in the sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th grades are dabbling in sex, drugs and alcohol at a younger age. Among the findings:
* 37 percent of high school students say they have had sexual intercourse.
*8 percent of middle school students say they have had sexual intercourse.
*17.4 percent of high school students say they have had three or more intercourse partners.
Ellen Gerstein, the group’s executive director, offered to speak about the results to parents and civic groups. Few took her up on it.
There’s a way to get folks talking about the issue, though, as evidenced last week in Portland, Maine. There, a school committee voted to make prescription birth control available to kids who have parental permission to be treated in a middle school student health center.
According to the Portland Press Herald, a girl will be able to walk into the clinic, take a physical exam, be counseled by a physician or nurse practitioner and, possibly, get birth control pills. Or the morning-after pill. State law allows students treated in Portland’s school-based health centers to receive confidential care for reproductive health, mental health and substance abuse.
When it comes to sex education, what approach to take typically falls into two camps - the abstinence-based instructional strategy, which the state’s public schools use, and the comprehensive approach.
Given those perspectives, you can either view the Portland school committee’s stance as wisely progressive or extremely contradictory.
Or maybe you’re torn, like me and Gerstein.
So many parents fail to talk to their kids about sex. Pop culture bombards youngsters with irresponsible messages about sex. Some kids look, dress and act older than their biological years. Must be the food.
And as the local survey showed, risky behavior is on the rise. Gerstein wonders whether there’s some magical mix of abstinence-based instruction and safe-sex measures that might cause kids to delay sex and protect those who don’t.
“I think [the Portland] community decided that the health and protection of the child was more important than some of the other issues that were raised,” she said. “I have mixed views. If a girl is sexually active, she needs birth control, professional health, counseling about her sexual activity and all the monitoring. I would rather my child go to a doctor and tell her things, confidentially, than not go at all.”
The Portland decision raises many questions.
What are the long-term effects of young girls going on the pill? What double message does providing contraceptives send kids? What about student confidentiality versus a parent’s right to know?
In a near-perfect society, parents would be the first line of instruction when it comes to teens and sex.
But that’s the thing. So many aren’t.
I asked Gerstein how many concerned parents or civic groups contacted her about the youth survey.
“Not very many,” she said.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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