Edinburgh Zoo's elephant sex-education video makes kids sick

A ZOO’S sex education programme for primary pupils left kids feeling sick.

One young boy almost fainted when his class, from a primary school in an exclusive district of Edinburgh, were shown a graphic video of an elephant giving birth.

And the Edinburgh Zoo video left several other youngsters feeling queasy, a mum claimed yesterday.

The pupils, aged 10 and 11, from Sciennes Primary were also asked to shout out the names of sex organs on a visit to the monkey enclosure.

Anja Shiefler, whose 10-year-old daughter Ivy was on the trip, said: “The film about the elephant was quite full-on and there was one little boy who felt quite sick and was about to faint.
“Quite a few of the pupils felt a bit sick and didn’t want to watch it.”

Zoo education officer Joanna Dick yesterday admitted their Cycle of Life education programme is “no-nonsense”.
She said: “It’s our most popular lesson on offer by far. We saw almost 2500 children take part last year.
“The lesson lasts nearly two hours and it is a no-nonsense, grown-up, scientific approach to sexual education.”

An Edinburgh Council spokeswoman said: “We encourage all schools to create an environment that is creative and engaging for pupils.

“The Cycle of Life programme, which is run by the zoo, does exactly this in a fun and informative way.”

Parenst must be involved is sex education

Let's start with a beyond-dispute premise: We need to do everything possible to prevent unwanted teen pregnancy.

But should pediatricians pre-prescribe “morning-after” pills to girls younger than 17, as the American Academy of Pediatrics has suggested?

Even though I'm the mother of two teen boys, I believe that if I were instead charged with the health and well-being of two teen girls I'd be saying “Heck, yeah!”

But who am I to say that other parents would feel the same?

My neighbors are a devoutly churchgoing Hispanic couple with two sons and a 15-year-old daughter. The father of the family, a cheery Mexican immigrant who holds fast to traditional conservative religious ideas about his daughter's reproductive rights — which is to say he probably doesn't believe she has any — would surely not feel comfortable if he thought his daughter's physician would give her access to morning-after pills “just in case.”

You might be saying to yourself that this child is probably an excellent candidate for becoming one of the 55.7 per 1,000 Hispanic girls ages 15 to 19 who give birth every year — 80 percent of these pregnancies are unintended — and you'd be absolutely right.

With this terrible state of affairs, it would seem obvious that pediatricians should provide explicit, unsolicited counseling about birth control and emergency pregnancy prevention to teens, and especially girls, independent of a parent's wishes, right?

Maybe. Especially maybe in communities where teen pregnancies among minority girls are particularly pervasive. For instance, New York City's public schools face a powerful mix of high poverty, underinsured families, and teens who frequently start sexual activity before the age of 13. The schools are trying pilot programs to provide birth control and morning-after pills right in school buildings. Health officials there recently reported that parents are fine with the program.

What we're really witnessing here is the medical establishment's acknowledgement that way too many parents refuse to admit that in our highly sexualized society, they are the ones who need to provide their children with reliable information about safe sex.

Because overall averages of teen pregnancy have been going down for the last few years, there is an opportunity here to get to the root of the problem, which is less about what talks doctors should be having with their minor patients and more about what information should be shared at home.

Studies have shown that kids of parents who have meaningful and informative conversations about sex are less likely to engage in risky behaviors leading to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

If the pediatric medical establishment wants to go ahead and codify a policy that says “talk to your kids about safe sex or we'll do it for you,” it should do so hand-in-hand with general practitioners who treat parents.

In other words, as the AAP tells pediatricians to initiate these talks with kids, the American Medical Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should ask that physicians screen patients who are parents for their ability to provide their kids with age-appropriate sex education, give them a score predicting their child's likelihood to engage in risky sexual behaviors and provide them the resources to prevent such negative outcomes.

Another beyond-dispute premise: Efforts to reach kids without involving their parents in helping them make good choices will ultimately falter.

Explicit sex education DVD banned in England

xplicit sex education DVD banned in England still being aired in Scots primary schools 

Naked couple shown in the explicit DVD 

 

A SEX education DVD axed for being too graphic is still being used in Scots primary schools.
Living and Growing features explicit footage of a naked cartoon couple having sex.

And Channel 4, who produced it, have withdrawn it from sale in England after a storm of protest.
Now furious mums in Lanarkshire have demanded that it is taken out of use in schools in the area.
Many parents say they were not made fully aware of the nature of the film.

And Coatbridge mums Barbara Devoti, Pamela Cupples, Yvonne Cass and Nikki McDonald insist it is
inappropriate for very young children.

Pamela said: “I’ve seen the DVD. It’s very crude and unsuitable for kids.

“It doesn’t promote sexuality being in marriage. It’s all about ‘being in love’. We, as parents, are here to know what is best for our children to see.”

Yvonne added: “The decision is taken out of parents’ hands and that is not acceptable.

“Not everyone matures at the same age and it should be my right to decide what is too mature for my child.”
The film includes a section aimed at children as young as five, asking them to name the body parts on a drawing of a naked man and woman.

Another segment, intended for eight year-olds, shows the cartoon couple chasing each other around a bedroom with a feather before having sex.

A North Lanarkshire Council spokesman said last night that parents can withdraw their pupils from the sex education programme.

He added: “We work closely with parents in our schools and write to them making it clear they have the opportunity to view the materials we use and of their right to withdraw their child.

“The vast majority of parents support the programme. However, we fully respect that some parents may not wish their child to take part.

“It has been used in schools throughout the country for more than 15 years and has been well received in helping to address a sensitive subject area.”

South of the Border, Schools Minister Nick Gibb summoned executives from Channel 4 and asked for explicit scenes to be axed from the film.

The title has now been removed from the market in England.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “It is for local authorities and schools to decide which resources are used with pupils, ensuring that all content is appropriate for the children being taught.”

A spokesman for local authority organisation COSLA said: “Councils take their responsibility to educate
children about relationships and sexual health very seriously indeed.

“They will have a programme of work in place on the subject and fully appreciate the sensitivities involved with the issue.”

Abbotsford sex-ed curriculum challenged

VANCOUVER -- Abbotsford, BC's abstinence-based sex-ed program is under attack from the BC Humanist Association's Ian Bushfield, who said that abstinence education is making this generation of children afraid of contraceptives.

Bushfield wrote a letter to BC Education Minister Don McRae, asking him to investigate the district's curriculum and "ensure that students are free from religious dogma and proselytizing."

Bushfield thinks students need to be taught more about how to have safe sex.

The human sexuality curriculum in the Abbotsford district states, "The focus will be on sexual abstinence, as the Board believes that (is) the only truly safe way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases."
It also outlines, "While students will be instructed about contraceptives, the 'how to' will not be taught in the classroom setting."

For Bushfield, that isn't enough.

"You know keeping children ignorant, keeping teenagers ignorant is not a good recipe for them to make good choices in the future. You know we need to inform our students," he said.

A spokesman for the minister said school districts have autonomy over this topic, but if anyone feels a district's policy contradicts the School Act, they are free to challenge that in the courts.

District superintendent Kevin Godden has stated that the school district is constantly reviewing all of its policies, and that the district's sex education policy is also slated for re-evaluation and will be shaped by the latest teaching methods and the education ministry.

Poor sex education leaves some children clueless about the birds and bees

• Young people learn about sex ed through porn and the internet 
• There are no minimum standards for sex ed in schools 
• In three years, STIs have increased 20 per cent among young people 

Teen pregnancy could be on the rise with the lack of sex education in some schools. Picture: Fox Searchlight, from the film 'Juno'.

Young people are at risk of unwanted pregnancies because of inadequate sexual education, an expert says. 
CHILDREN can miss out entirely on sexual education because there's no minimum standard, experts warn. Dr Joanne Ramadge, Sexual Health and Family Planning Australia's chief executive officer, said with no national standard for sex education too many children are not getting comprehensive sex education and some may miss out altogether.

She warned inadequate education led to risky behaviour and could lead to unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.

"Most schools have some element of what we used to call sex ed but it's often not well done, it's often not structured, it doesn't very often meet the needs of the young people,” she said.

"I'm sure it's possible (for children to leave school without sex ed). There's nothing that says schools have to provide it, or provide it a certain way.

"Especially with a mobile population. If they confine sex ed to one class at a certain age, children might … go to another school, it's quite possible that they'll miss out.”

Dr Ramadge said that sometimes teachers might not be properly trained, or might be uncomfortable teaching children about sex.

"Until it's part of a national curriculum it's hit and miss,” she said.

Do you think sex education is adequately taught in schools? Comment below
A study released earlier this year by the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition and the Youth Empowerment Against HIV/AIDS found there had been a 20 per cent increase in sexually transmitted infections among people aged 15-29 over the past three years.

They also found almost as many young people learn about sex through pornography as through their parents, and that the internet was the most common source of information.

AYAC deputy director (young people) Maia Giordana, at the time of the report's release, said in some schools sexual education was "not really happening at all”.

The report recommended a minimum national standard, and for sex education to be taught from Year 5 to Year 12.

Dr Ramadge said gaining knowledge about sex and risky behaviour - such as drugs and drinking which can lead to unsafe sex, sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies - was crucial early in life.

A Health and Physical Education "shape paper" which will guide the Federal Government's draft national curriculum, due to be finalised next year, has sexual education components.

The changes associated with puberty will be taught from Year 5, while other subjects will be included later on. Sexuality and reproductive health will be a "focus area" of the national curriculum.

A spokesman for the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority said the Health and Physical Education shape paper was the "product of extensive consultation with educators, experts, and the community".

"The feedback we've received is also being used to guide the writing of the draft curriculum," he said.

"Once the draft curriculum is released ACARA will again give the public a chance to respond to what ACARA proposes that young people will learn in health and physical education."

The Lasting Impacts of Single-Sex Education

As a visiting student at Barnard College years ago, I attended the transfer students’ orientation where each student was asked to explain why she had chosen Barnard.  I’ll never forget one woman’s response: Well, I went to an all-girls elementary school and an all-girls middle school and an all-girls high school, and when I got to my co-ed college, I didn’t know how to function around the boys, so I decided to transfer to Barnard.  Well, that’s one solution.  I think I laughed at the time.

But it turns out, she’s not the only one with this problem, and, in fact, given the rapid increase in single-sex programs in public schools, it looks like the trouble may only be spreading.  Take a look at the recently-released November 2010 Arkansas Department of Education’s Application for School Improvement Grants.  It explains that Jacksonville High School (JHS) initiated The Freshman Academy “to help incoming freshmen who needed extra help with academics and social/emotional needs,” a laudable goal.  But, from 2007-2010, JHS was unable to “initiate this program as designed” and now plans to revamp the program.   Instead of using the program to meet its designated goals, JHS leadership used “the Academy as a dual gender reassimilation because the students were coming from gender-based feeder schools. The Academy became a chance for the students to get back together after being separated in the Jacksonville Boys Middle School and the Jacksonville Girls Middle School.”  Got that?  Instead of focusing on techniques that have been proven to improve academic outcomes, the school has to spend its limited resources teaching boys and girls to play well with each other.

Perhaps this outcome isn’t surprising.  Social scientists have found that labeling and separating students based on almost any characteristic (e.g., sex, eye color, randomly assigned t-shirts) makes those differences even more salient to the students and produces intergroup bias.  No wonder students who have been divided by sex for years need help learning how to work and learn together.

Here’s the bottom line: many of our schools are in trouble and coming out of the largest recession since the 1930s, with mounting national debt, we have limited resources.  Many schools are choosing to spend those limited resources on single-sex programs despite the fact that “there is no well-designed research showing that single-sex education improves students’ academic performance, but there is evidence that sex segregation increases gender stereotyping and legitimizes institutional sexism.” As a result of prioritizing single-sex classes, these schools don’t have the funds to spend on techniques that have actually been proven to improve academic outcomes, like smaller class sizes and personalized learning environments with mentors, counseling, and other supports.  AND, then other schools down the line, like The Freshman Academy, are forced to spend their limited resources undoing the damage done by single-sex classes rather than, again, implementing proven techniques to expand academic achievement.  At the end of the day, we are not preparing our students for the real world.  After all, there are very few things one can do as a grown-up, short of joining a cloistered religious order, to be exclusively in a single-sex environment.

All of our kids deserve to reach their full potential, regardless of their sex. And, that starts with a high quality, fair education that focuses on techniques that work and teaches all students as individuals, not as stereotypes.

State Lawmakers Stall Sex Ed Bill To Focus On Anti-Choice Legislation

Ohio’s War On Women: State Lawmakers Stall Sex Ed Bill To Focus On Anti-Choice Legislation

Despite the fact that voters across the country rejected radical anti-choice legislation in this month’s election, Ohio lawmakers have been busy reviving the War on Women during their lame duck session. Ohio’s Health And Aging Committee voted to strip funding from Planned Parenthood last week, Republican lawmakers introduced a misleading “sex-selective” abortion ban at the same committee meeting, and Ohio’s Senate may soon consider an extreme “heartbeat” bill that represents the most restrictive anti-choice legislation in the nation.

And Ohio lawmakers are so focused on their radical anti-choice agenda that they don’t have time for practical legislation that would actually help lower the abortion rate. The Dayton Daily News reports that the House’s health committee gave a “complimentary” hearing to HB 338, which seeks to establish science-based standards for comprehensive sexuality education in the state’s public schools, but has no intentions of advancing the legislation:

In the final weeks of two-year legislative session, Ohio lawmakers are sparring over several bills related to abortion and women’s health, leading to charges from Democrats that their Republican colleagues are engaging in a “war on women.” [...]
Meanwhile, a Democratic bill that is being touted as a comprehensive sexual health and education measure, had its first and probably last hearing this week.
[Rep. Lynn Wachtmann (R)] chairman of the House Health and Aging Committee, said he gave the bill a “complimentary hearing” on Wednesday, but it won’t go any further, at least not this year.

In fact, if Ohio lawmakers are so concerned about preventing abortions that they feel the need to target Planned Parenthood clinics, they might want to start with ensuring that students receive medically comprehensive information about human sexuality, the female reproductive system, and preventative measures like birth control and condoms. Equipping young adults with comprehensive sex education is directly related to helping prevent unintended pregnancies. The states that push abstinence-only education programs in their public schools — which often mislead students about birth control’s rate of effectiveness, and aren’t honest about the best ways to prevent sexually transmitted diseases — have the highest rates of teen pregnancies, while adolescents who actually receive instruction about prevention methods are 60 percent less likely to get someone else pregnant or get pregnant themselves.

A recent survey of the health classes in New York state’s public schools found that they have “shocking gaps” in their sex education programs, highlighting the need for standardized guidelines requiring up-to-date, scientifically accurate information across schools. Ohio’s school system could have the same kind of gaps — but, thanks to Ohio lawmaker’s insistence on prioritizing attacks on abortion access and Planned Parenthood funding, they won’t get addressed this year.

 

What links sex education and Guides? Feminism

A family planning chief at the helm of Girlguiding UK caused outrage, but Julie Bentley shows the organisations aren’t so different after all.Julie Bentley is the new chief executive of the Girl Guide Association 

She has spent five years campaigning to change abortion laws in Northern Ireland, resisting opposition to the UK’s 24-week termination deadline, and pressing for mandatory sex education in schools.

So this week’s announcement that Julie Bentley, the former head of the Family Planning Association, has been appointed chief executive of Girlguiding UK was met with horror from some quarters.

Religious groups lined up to declare that this sex-peddling liberal would destroy innocent girlhood and turn a treasured institution into a hotbed of promiscuity.

“The Girl Guides is an organisation which should protect girls from these sorts of pressures,” boomed Mike Judge of a Christian think tank. Jill Kirby, a social policy author, declared: “One of the reasons why girls want to join the Guides…is that they can escape from sex and television culture.

“I would have hoped that anyone leading the Guides would understand that. I don’t believe Ms Bentley does.”

The message on the institution’s mugs — “Keep Calm and Carry on Guiding” — suddenly seems rather apt. But will Miss Bentley, 43, really be so bad for the Guides?

I first met her when she arrived as the head of the FPA in 2007. I had been a patron since 2000 and the arrival of the vibrant and then 38-year-old (who uses the phrase “Cor Blimey!” without irony) to a 75-year-old charity was a breath of fresh air.

Like me, she could occasionally be frustrated by the term “Family Planning” (she recognised that it meant little to 15-year-olds in Brixton), but she sufficiently respected the heritage of the well-known institution to reject a full-scale overhaul of its name.

I quickly learnt that Miss Bentley was not driven by a belief that people should be having rampant, inconsequential sex.

Instead, she was focused on empowering people, especially young girls, through self-esteem and age-appropriate knowledge, regardless of whether they choose condoms or abstinence. She is also a fighter for the underdog.

At heart, she is driven by the passionately held view that young people are often misunderstood and misrepresented.

Miss Bentley was a volunteer long before David Cameron defined the Big Society. Leaving school at 18, she inquired about being a youth worker in Essex, where she grew up.

“I was told I couldn’t be one, because I was still a youth myself,” she laughs. “So I volunteered two evenings a week at youth clubs and did my training while also working as a post lady.

“I loved that, walking in the outdoors and meeting lots of people.”

Though she was never a Guide, she describes her childhood, in a working-class home, as “fabulous”.
She adds: “So much so that I was aware of how lacking some children’s lives could be.”

Surprisingly, her biggest challenge in taking the helm of the Girl Guides is not to recruit more females to the biggest youth organisation in the UK (it boasts 540,000 members) but to mobilise more helpers.

“We have 100,000 volunteers who deliver literally millions of hours per year.

“But women’s lives are different now — 50 years ago we could give 30 hours a week.

“But we need to be more flexible these days, and if people can only give the odd hour, that’s great.”

She was pushy but polite in recruiting famous faces to the FPA, somehow persuading Jo Brand and Clare Balding to host its annual dinner.

So I’m sure, I tell her, that she will have no trouble in finding the Girl Guides a celebrity figurehead akin to Bear Grylls, who represents the Scouts with muddy-faced machismo.

“No,” she chides. “Women and girls can’t be summed up like that. Some love sport. Others hate all that sweating. No one woman represents all of us.”

I remember much heartache and head-scratching at the FPA as we tried to sum up the charity’s many aims in one sentence.

Miss Bentley, however, swiftly changed the strapline from the rather dreary “putting sexual health on the agenda” to “talking sense about sex”.

This forward-thinking clarity sums her up: a no-nonsense, ambitious goal-setter who celebrated her 40th birthday three years ago by cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats.

She went on the mission with her partner of 11 years, Sean, in aid of the Feham Village Appeal which builds schools in India. So, as she prepares to bring the same energy to the Girl Guides, how would she sum up their aim in an MTV age?

She pauses for a second. “To have fun, be happy and realise your potential.

“I want to help young people understand that… confidence, self-esteem and inner belief is going to determine what they do with their lives,” she says.

That people have criticised her appointment because of her background in family planning has not fazed her.
“That was lazy headline-writing,” she tells me. “The two are not connected.”

What has surprised her, though, is the shock caused by her description of the Guides as “the ultimate feminist organisation”.

“In 1909 the Girl Guides started because a group of girls marched on a Scout meeting and said, 'What about us?’ For over 100 years, we’ve been echoing that same sentiment.

“I find it extraordinary that people are offended by the word 'feminist’ in 2012, but it has been very corrupted.”

But in these inclusive times, she is inevitably having to answer questions about the Guides’ female-only policy. (The Scouts, on the other hand, have included older girls since 1976, with younger girls admitted from 2007.)

“It is right and proper that girls and boys mix across society.

“But girls need freedom to be themselves and have fun with other girls without stereotypes.”
As a mother, I can think of nothing better than several hours a week in which my daughters might spend time with other girls (especially at a cost of roughly £20 for a three-month term), but surely the Guides is just not cool?

“Anyone who thinks Guides isn’t cool needs to look again,” Miss Bentley says with passion.
“Every year we have the Big Gig, a pop concert in which we fill Wembley with the latest acts and Girl Guides. It’s amazing.

“And of course we still do all the outdoor stuff as well — zip-wires, rock-climbing and grass-sledging.”
Although my two girls are only three and 18 months, Miss Bentley teases me that the popularity of the Guides is such that “you need to get their names down now”.

She adds: “We have a 50,000-strong waiting list.”

She reads my mind: “Don’t worry, there’s no uniform to iron! It’s all hoodies and tracksuits now.”

School board questions sex education change

BROOKVILLE - Following a presentation by a concerned parent, members of the Brookville School Board asked when and why a portion of the elementary school curriculum had been changed.
Carol Shindler of Church Street, Brookville, told the board that she has three children in school, in grades 11, 9 and 5. "I was recently informed," she said, "that the school is no longer offering any type of sex ed classes to the fifth and sixth graders. I'm kind of at a loss as to why the school has made a decision to disregard the importance of this."

Shindler, who is a registered nurse anesthetist, said that she agrees that the primary responsibility for sex education "does fall with the parents, but I think the school needs to be involved in providing factual, age-appropriate information. Puberty is a time of physical and emotional changes which can be very frightening to an unprepared child. I believe the school should be teaching physical development, reproductive anatomy and physiology, bodily changes and emotional changes in an age-appropriate curriculum. Parents who would want to opt out of this could certainly be given that option. There are a lot of children that have a very poor home life and a lot of them are not going to get proper and accurate explanations at home."

She added that "I know many parents are very satisfied with the Safe Touch program that is offered in the earlier grades. In a time when there is more child abuse, teen pregnancies, STDs, AIDS and so forth, I'm not sure how it's possible for the school to ignore the elementary children. They need to be instilled with the knowledge to help them care for their bodies and to help them maintain personal boundaries, to understand when lines of impropriety have been crossed and who they should report it to."

Shindler told the board that she "would like to know what, if any, plan the school has to address this now or in the future to make sure our children have accurate information and support for their well-being as they begin the maturation process."

She said that her two older children both had received sex education in elementary school but her 10-year-old daughter, who is in fifth grade, "has not had anything." When she talked to Hickory Grove principal Ed Dombroski, she was told "there was no more program," and there is no type of sex ed program until ninth grade.

As several members of the board asked when and why the sex ed program had been dropped without the board being involved, board president Tom Maloney told Shindler that it would not be discussed at the meeting. "But your question is certainly a very valid one and the administration can follow up."

During his report on last month's IU6 meeting, Michael Smith told the board that the IU6 executive director, John Kornish, will be retiring in August. He said the board will start its search for someone to fill the position.
Board member Fred Park reported on a busy board meeting at Jeff Tech, at which several staff vacancies were filled. He said Jeff Tech's reorganizational meeting will be held Thursday, December 6, with a workshop and dinner to precede the meeting. He encouraged all board members to attend.

The next meeting of the Brookville School Board will be held Monday, December 3. The board will hold its reorganizational meeting at 7 p.m., followed by the monthly board meeting.

No Substitute for Sex Ed

Although pornography isn’t made for adolescents, it would be naïve to believe they don’t watch it. Earlier generations snuck peeks at their parents’ magazine or VHS collections. Today most U.S. teenagers have Internet access and thus a virtual buffet of porn. But how does such exposure affect them?

Scientifically, it is difficult to tease out the effects that porn use has on adolescents; some of the correlations may not be causations. Research has found that adolescents who seek out porn are more likely to engage in certain sexual behaviors (like anal sex and group sex) and to begin having sex at younger ages. But are they engaging in more varied sex acts and at younger ages because they watched porn? Or are they highly sexually interested young women and men who sought out sexual stimulation in the form of both pornography and partners?

Of course, porn isn’t going anywhere – nor is it becoming more vanilla or true to life. A recent study found that popular mainstream porn featured anal sex in about 55 percent of scenes. However, my research team’s data suggest that only about 4 percent of Americans engaged in anal sex during their most recent sexual experience -- a sizable difference that emphasizes that porn is fiction. Other issues that concern people include how porn generally depicts women, shows sex as casual rather than intimate, and frequently has partners couple and part ways without exchanging names or wearing condoms.

Yes, pornography is fiction. That’s part of why many people enjoy it. However, there’s a risk if young women and men misunderstand sex as a result of a porn-only sex education.

Many of my college students who have watched porn but had little sex education (whether in schools or from their families) often have a skewed view of sex. They may believe that anal sex and group sex are common, that genitals should be hairless, and that facials (not the spa kind) are par for the course. Once they engage in a real relationship with someone they care for, many of their beliefs are challenged and they find themselves readjusting to sex in the real world -- very different from the sex they’ve seen online. Then again, young women whose ideas about sex and love are shaped by “Fifty Shades of Grey” or Hollywood romantic comedies will also have to make room for reality.

It’s the larger context of sex education that is critical to examine. Pornography and “Fifty Shades” aren’t the problem.

Many college students say I am the first adult to teach them about sex. This is striking. If parents and schools don’t teach teenagers about sex, intimacy and healthy relationships, then pornography will remain their primary source of sex information. It doesn’t have to be that way. We need age- and developmentally appropriate sex education in schools that spans years, not just a single video about puberty in fifth grade.

Young women and men need to learn about their bodies, how to be emotionally vulnerable with one another, and what’s common (and not) about sexuality so that when they’re faced with creating their own sexual lives, they can create the sexual life that feels good to them rather than recreating the fictionalized, and often risky, sex they’ve seen online. They’ll know that pornography and romantic novels are fictions of sex and love -- and that it’s for them to create reality.

Sex education proposal in teacher training institutes

KUALA LUMPUR: The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry has proposed that the teaching of sex education be included in the curriculum at Teacher Training Institutes.

 Its deputy minister, Senator Datuk Heng Seai Kie, said the  ministry was still in its initial stages of discussion with the  education ministry on the proposal.

“If this can be implemented, all our teachers will be equipped  with the knowledge and skills to teach sex education.

“They will know how to handle issues or problems among  students related to sex,” she told a press conference after  launching the National Women’s Safety Campaign Anti- Crime Against Women workshop on Monday.

She also said the ministry, in collaboration with the  education ministry, would continue and expand its pilot  projects — “I’m In Control” and “Pekerti Programme” — for  Standard Six and Form Three students in the next five years. About 30,00 students will undergo the programmes every  year.

“We have chosen to target these two groups of students  because usually after their national examinations, they have  some free time before the holidays,” she said, adding that this  was to ensure that their normal schooling hours were not  interrupted by the eight-day programmes. In light of the recent uproar over the cases of two convicted  rapists escaping jail terms, the programmes will also include  knowledge on Section 376 of the Penal Code which governs  the penalty for rape.

Heng said the students would not only be taught about the  biological changes of their bodies but also the risks of pre- marital sex and consequences of underage sex. Besides sending the ministry’s officers and non-govern mental organisations to conduct these programmes, she said  selected teachers would also be trained over the next five  years to conduct  the programme in their schools.

Earlier in her speech at the workshop, she said based on  police statistics there were 465 sexual harassment cases  reported from 2009 to 2011.

There was however a decline in rape cases from 3,626 in  2009 to 3,301 in 2011; molest cases from 96 (2009) to 71  (2011) and in incest cases from 31 (2009) to 17 (2011). The workshop is the ninth of the 20 planned to be held  nationwide this month. It aims to educate more than 20,000  females on how to defend and protect themselves in cases of  crime or violence against them.

"Sex Matters" At Least in English

It's official -- women speak better English than men. EF's English Proficiency Index's (EF EPI) recent survey of 1.7 million adults from 54 countries has concluded that when it comes to adopting the world's lingua franca, females are outperforming males. (Full disclosure --- I am both female and work at EF Education First, the international education company which publishes the index).

Why do women perform better than men in English language?

Worldwide, women's English proficiency outpaces men's by a measurable margin (see chart). There are a myriad of possible reasons for this, the more convincing ones linked to educational trends as reported by UNESCO: women now outnumber men in worldwide university enrollments and graduation rates. In many countries, female students tend to be over-represented in the humanities. As Forbes reports, in U.S. higher education, women make up 56 percent of the student population -- the highest percentage on record in thiscountry.

Women hold up half the sky
The gender gap in English is the widest in the Middle East. Women in the Middle East and North Africa score more than five points above men. In this region, where gender equality lags behind worldwide standards, there is a certain justice in knowing that women are outperforming men. The world's largest women-only university, Princess Nora University, opened in Saudi Arabia to great fanfare last May and is a promising start to that region's recognizing the potential of their female population.

Women's strong performance in English isn't merely a triumph for women's rights. English, as the key to global communication and international business, can help raise the competitiveness of industries, countries and entire regions.
All is not lost for man-kind
Out of the 54 countries included in the global English rankings, there are a few outliers, like Sweden, Chile, Portugal, and Switzerland where men are seen scoring slightly better in English than females. The EF EPI report this year also shows the ranking between 54 countries, the Nordics topping the list and Libya finishing in last place.

Time to make sexuality education part of Vietnamese school curriculum

A 9-year project ensuring young people`s rights to sexual and reproductive health in rural areas of Vietnam has come to an end. The two driving forces behind the project are The Danish Family Planning Association (DFPA) and Center for Gender, Family and Environment in Development (CGFED). Steps to mainstreaming sexuality education in Vietnam are now being taken.
 
On September 20 CGFED and DFPA arranged a conference in Hanoi to highlight the results of the project and to advocate for an institutionalization of sexuality education in Vietnam. The project has shown its strength through the outreach and mobilization of community and local government support for sexuality education in the areas Nam Dinh, Bac Giang, Phu Yen and Ho Chi Minh City.

Aiming at enabling continued cooperation between DFPA and CGFED in a partnership to promote sexuality education in Vietnam, the conference was attended by more than 90 people, including the secretary general of DFPA, Bjarne B. Christensen, Executive Director of CGFED, Ms. Ngoc and representatives from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health.

 

Mr Christensen explained that from Danish experience, good quality sexuality education is based on a legal framework, qualified human resources and good education materials.

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang Yen from Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences, the Ministry of Education and Training, the time is right to make sexuality education part of the school curriculum.

Facts and feelings: Sexuality education for middle schoolers

Middle school students "are at a unique point, going through puberty, learning about relationships and how to interact with someone they are attracted to," said Kirsten deFur, one of the facilitators of a sexuality education program at the Unitarian Church.

  STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Whatever age it happens, the way we learn about sex is usually memorable, The whole picture is often pieced together from various and sundry sources — the “the talk” with mom or dad, stories of friends, health class and a host of print and electronic media. The result can be a confusing mix of fact and misinformation. 

At the Unitarian Church of Staten Island, parents decided to provide middle school students with a more complete approach to their sexuality with a broad base of information. While sex education is part of the intermediate school curriculum, parents have found the emphasis to be on preventing STDs and AIDs and not on the range of physical and emotional changes that come with puberty.

“We don’t want a fear-based sexuality education program. We want one where sexuality is seen as a positive thing. If we give this age group the right information, they can make responsible decisions,” said Kate Howard, religious exploration coordinator.

The course is part of the the Unitarian Universalist’s program for sexuality education known as OWL — Our Whole Lives.

 

  KIRSTEN DeFUR 

The curriculum is secular and free of any religious doctrine. It will be facilitated by Rona Solomon, president of the Unitarian Church of Staten Island and sexuality educator Kirsten deFur.
“These students are at a unique point, going through puberty, learning about relationships and how to interact with someone they are attracted to,” said Ms. deFur who has a master of public health in sexuality and health from Columbia University.
“It’s important for them to think about relationships and sexuality and how people get along before they enter into a serious relationship,” she added.
“More than the birds and the bees,” says Ms. deFur, the course emphasizes relationship skills and healthy living, by including a range of areas, including body awareness, human development, friendship, dating, gender issues and social responsibility.

RONA SOLOMON 

Ms. Solomon has an extensive background in human and reproductive rights that includes founding executive director of the Staten Island Aids Task Force and Development Director of Community Family Planning Council.

Students will have the opportunity to read, discuss and ask questions.

“It’s important to have a safe base to explore and talk about sexuality,” said Ms. deFur. The curriculum is meant to support a parent’s role as the primary educators of their children.

A parent orientation will be held Sunday, Nov. 11 from 12:45 to 2:15 p.m. Parents can register their children on that day for the 11 week course that begins Jan. 6. The fee for the course is $150. Financial assistance may be available. For more information, contact Ms. Howard at 718-447-2204 or recoordinator@uucsi.org.

Teens taking online sex ed course have reduced sexually transmitted infections, improved condom use

Marco Gonzalez-Navarro
Marco Gonzalez-Navarro is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto who was part of research team that found an online sexual education course improved the sexual behaviours and attitudes of Comlombian ninth graders.
 If learning about the birds and the bees from your antiquated teacher in a room full of giggling adolescents seemed like torture, researchers have found a more effective solution.

A team from the University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, Yale University and including researchers in South America studied the attitudes and behaviour of ninth graders in Colombia who took an online sexual education course. Those who were sexually active were found to have fewer sexually transmitted infections, increased condom use and a greater awareness of sexually abusive situations.

“We found very strong and significant effects,” said Marco Gonzalez-Navarro, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. “Using these tools to provide a more complex sexual health education seemed to work at least in this context.”

The study, published as a working paper, tracked 138 ninth graders from 69 public schools in 21 Colombian cities who took a semester-long course provided by Profamilia — an arm of Planned Parenthood International — at a cost of $14 per student.

Students spent an hour and a half each day in class on the computer, where they worked through interactive modules and quizzes on topics such as sexual rights, pregnancy, contraceptives and infections.

An important part of the course was access to a remote Profamilia tutor, with whom students could communicate privately to ask questions and get feedback.

“Using the Internet as a way of educating kids hasn’t always shown to be very effective,” Gonzalez-Navarro said, but in the case where discussing sexual activity openly can be awkward for teenagers, working online is an advantage.

“This is one of those topics in which privacy was a big thing,” he said.

Researchers conducted a survey of baseline attitudes before the course started, one week after the course had finished and six months later. Students were also given vouchers for condoms six months after the course,

The results of the study showed a 10-per-cent increase in condom use among students who had taken the course and a reduction in self-reported infections for those students who were sexually active when the course started.

Gonzalez-Navarro said there was a significant, positive impact on sexual behaviour among friend groups who had taken the course.

“That was pretty encouraging,” he said. “You get much more effects if you have groups of kids knowing the same things.”

While the number of unwanted pregnancies and the rate of sexually transmitted infections among teens are lower in North America than Colombia, with more access to sexual education resources, Gonzalez-Navarro said a course like this could still be implemented here.

“Indicators such as teenage pregnancy are much better in Canada than in Columbia,” he said. “But there’s still room for improvement.”

Texas public school districts alter sex education programs

Abstinence Education Jennifer Waters, education director for 180 degrees program, teaches an abstinence class at Arbor Creek Middle School, in Carrollton, Texas, March 27, 2007. Texas law requires sex education courses be abstinence-based.

This past year, several Texas school districts have implemented a new abstinence-plus program developed by the University of Texas Prevention Research Center (UTPRC) at Houston. The program is called “It’s Your Game … Keep It Real,” or IYG. IYG is both a classroom- and computer-based program specifically designed for middle school kids.

In 1995, then Gov. George W. Bush signed a bill that required all Texas schools to teach abstinence only curricula. At the time, this bill made Texas the third state to require abstinence only education.

The IYG program emphasizes and encourages abstinence; however, it also promotes the theory that the more teens know about sex, the longer they wait to have sex. IYG works toward “developing, implementing and disseminating fact-based human sexuality education in middle schools,” according to IYG’s mission and purpose statement.

The program is designed to “teach teens about their bodies, personal relationships, personal rules and sex while giving them the skills to grow into safe, responsible young adults,” according to the IYG’s website. IYG is separated into two programs: “It’s Your Game: Risk Reduction” and “It’s Your Game: Risk Avoidance.”

The former is a comprehensive program “grounded in theory” while the other “emphasizes the benefits of abstinence-until-marriage, individual and social benefits of marriage and incorporates elements of character development and future orientation,” according to IYG’s website.

Some people are enthusiastic about the possible effects of the program.

Senior Susan Hublein is a campus coordinator for GENAustin. As a campus coordinator, Hublein teaches middle school girls about puberty, positive body image and cultivating healthy relationships. GENAustin is geared specifically to elementary, middle and high school girls.

“One of the most shocking things [is that] in one of the schools I had to explain the difference between tampons and condoms,” Hublein said. “The fact that I had to explain the difference is frightening.”

As of now, districts in Austin, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Plano and Houston as well as nine school districts and the KIPP charter school system in Harris County have adopted the curriculum, including Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District.

Cy-Fair ISD began the curriculum at the end of October. Some parents have raised complaints about the explicit nature of IYG. On Facebook, there is a group called “Cy-Fair Parents Against Safer Sex-Ed for 7th & 8th Graders.” The parents feel IYG teaches children how to have safer sex, according to the page.

The program has an opt-out clause that allows parents to choose whether they want their child in the program. Texas requires that notice of sex education be given to parents, according to Guttmacher Institute.
Some parents do not agree with the opposition to the program.

“Me as a parent, I don’t mind this class as long as consent [from parents] is provided. This conversation should start early,” said Yvonne Johnson, mother of a sophomore at Cypress-Fairbanks High School. “I wish my daughter could have been in this program.”

The Houston Chronicle reported that the school district may drop seventh graders from the program.

Long Division and STIs

Typically, proper condom use isn’t discussed after a history lesson, and—in most high schools—you won’t see teachers following up a math quiz with a brief discussion on sexuality.

This could be an ideal situation—sex being talked about with such ease that it wouldn’t be out of place to discuss pregnancy options after having a lesson with a teacher you’ve known since middle school.

If that was the case, the issue at hand would be much less important. Maybe then, we wouldn’t be reporting statistics like Quebec’s 159 per cent increase in chlamydia cases over the past 13 years.

That’s not what’s happening, however.

Since the 2005 education reform put in place by Jean Charest’s Liberal government, curriculum changes have pushed sexual education from something discussed in health class to something that can easily be eliminated by teachers who don’t include it in their lesson plan—whether that’s because they’re receiving hardly any instruction on how to teach it, because they don’t feel the need to or simply because there isn’t the time.

“The idea is that every teacher from math to science should integrate sex ed into their classes,” said Juniper Belshaw. “What happens is that teachers are often not trained and might not feel comfortable talking about sex.”

Belshaw is the fundraising and development coordinator at Head and Hands, an NDG-based not-for-profit group that aims to promote the physical and mental wellbeing of youth.

Youth Teaching Youth
Head and Hands started their Sense Project in order to prevent sex education from slipping through the cracks of the often-vague high school curriculum since the education reform.

A peer-based sex ed program geared towards informing youth to make empowering decisions about sexual health, they target 14- to 17-year-olds—not only in school, but in group homes and community centres as well.

“I think back to my sex ed growing up in BC, which sort of felt similar to [the current Quebec system], where in biology class our teacher called blowjobs something like, ‘kissy-wissies,’” said Belshaw.

“Some teachers […] feel comfortable talking about it—but the vast majority don’t. So that’s where we get this gap, where students aren’t getting sex ed, or they’re not getting comprehensive sex ed or they aren’t getting sex ed at all.”
It’s that exact variability that makes sex educators, health practitioners and parents nervous.
The reality is that it’s entirely possible youth are receiving proper teaching on things like contraceptives, consent and sexually transmitted infections, but it’s still likely that they aren’t. When considering the states, it’s an all too uncertain of a risk to take.
“It’s a real public health issue,” said Belshaw. “Some youth are growing up thinking that there’s a cure for AIDS and when youth don’t know how to properly use a condom, those are issues. It’s really important to empower youth when they’re young to make informed decisions.”

Whose decision it is to make sure this happens is a sort of grey area, especially through the current system where no regulation exists to say who should teach what, or when.

“We use harm-reduction at Head and Hands, which is the idea that you meet people where they’re at,” said Belshaw, explaining that reducing harmful consequences related with risky behaviour is their priority, rather than trying to stop any and all behaviours that could lead to harm.

“I kind of think about sex ed in Quebec in the same way, I think that it’s better if kids get some education. I think if the teacher’s willing to do that then that’s rad, and if it’s another community organization that does it, that’s also rad,” she said.

“The Liberal government was talking about bringing sex ed back in a more real way and we would love to have a say in that process if the government was to decide to make sex ed a priority again—which we think it should.”

Teachers Teaching Teachers
One of the major difficulties since the reform—other than making sure teachers are, in fact, incorporating sex ed into the curriculum—has been making sure that teachers are qualified and comfortable doing so.

While external organizations, like the Sense Project, can come into schools to teach, it’s easier to reach more classrooms if teachers are following what the reform called for.

Formulating a sex ed curriculum that’s able to be incorporated into every class from biology to religion isn’t simple. The Teachers’ Toolkit, made by AIDS Community Care Montreal, helps teachers to do just that.

By having a database of comprehensive lesson plans, the toolkit offers teachers a way to educate themselves, and in turn become resources in sexual education for their students.

“It was actually quite difficult to picture what sexual health education would look like after the reform since the change really was put on us on teachers,” said Kimberly Wong, HIV educator at ACCM, the organization who started the toolkit after the reform.

“Ideally, sex ed would be taught in the classroom by individuals who specialize in the subject so that students can get accurate and up-to-date information.”

Quebec has one of the highest rates of denominational schools per capita in the country, another factor that comes into play when ensuring each and every student has access to the same comprehensive sexual education, no matter what their school or background.

“It really depends on the staff and administration at each individual school,” said Wong. “There are ways to integrate sex ed in the classroom of these schools and I think the lesson plans in our Ethics and Religious Culture section are great examples of how to do so.”

Those lessons include chapters like first romantic and sexual relationships, myths about sexual violence, and pregnancy options, highlighting things like dispelling common myths associated with sexual practices.

“It’s really difficult to know what direction sex education will take in the future,” she said. “I think what’s most important is providing teachers and schools the tools they need to be able to teach sex ed comfortably in the present.”

Activists warn of rising cases of child sex abuse

Child protection activists have warned that cases of sexual abuse involving children are increasing, and the children are not always the victims but sometimes the perpetrators.

They blamed the lack of sex education at an early age, as well as sex not being discussed openly because many people still considered the subject taboo.

“Meanwhile, children keep being exposed to sexual content from the internet and mobile phones without knowing the right information,” said Ni Nyoman Suparni, the founder of the Women and Children’s Protection Group, a non-government organization based in Karangasem.

In Karangasem, most of the 30 legal cases involving children were sexual offenses, Suparni said.

“Sex abuse involving children keeps rising, and this year it has dominated the cases,” said the women who recently received the MNC Award for her dedication to child protection.

The latest case in Karangasem involved a 16-year-old boy copulating with a hen. Local people reported this case in fear that the perpetrator would do the same to children in the neighborhood.

“The people thought that the boy had a mental disorder, but it is likely that he developed a strange sexual habit because he has often been exposed to sex videos without understanding them,” Suparni said, adding that there were a lot of similar cases in other areas.

The boy, identified as Komang Sup, has undergone psychological examination. He was declared to have a low IQ, but not a mental disorder.

“This boy will undergo further examination by a psychiatrist, and will be given alternative treatment,” said Suparni.

The boy, who did not finish elementary school, is a construction worker.

“He said he had no sexual passion when he was busy working. He admitted that copulating with a hen was an idea that came from his subconscious mind,” said Suparni, who accompanied Komang Sup.

One of the reasons behind sexual abuse is the rapid development of information technology, which allows people in rural areas to have broader access to technological devices without knowing how to use them responsibly.

“Sex education is crucial in these conditions. The people believe what they see, although they understand it in the wrong way.”

She suggested sex education be incorporated in the curriculum for middle school and high school in Bali, including topics about genitals and sexual crime.

I Ketut Sukanatha, director of the Indonesian Family Planning Agency (PKBI) that has been actively campaigning for sex education, said that he found many cases of people with certain sexual fantasies.

“We should not judge them as having a mental disorder. They need to be informed in the right way about the changes in themselves,” he said.

Meanwhile, unwanted pregnancy was the main reason for patients coming to the PKBI clinic in Denpasar.

He regretted the lack of teenage counselors, saying it was an obstacle to addressing the various problems. PKBI tries to reach out to teenagers through the village-based art group Sekaa Teruna.

Activists also called for the implementation of an integrated mechanism to guarantee that children involved in legal problems could be given proper protection and rehabilitation.

Bali has yet to implement this mechanism, despite the rising number of children becoming involved in legal cases, the activists said.

'Prayer and education'

African-American support could help defeat the redefinition of marriage in Maryland

Paul Cleveland (center) shares information with a voter in Cheverly, Md., as his wife, Fredi (left), looks on. 

BALTIMORE—Paul and Fredi Cleveland spent hours standing in front of the Hoyer Early Childhood Center in Cheverly, Md., on Tuesday looking for chances to do what they love to do: educate.

“I don’t blame people for wanting hope, but they’re believing lies,” Fredi said, passing out literature against ballot initiatives that would allow casino gaming and same-sex “marriage” in Maryland. She said if people have the facts, they would make the right decision.

As African-American Republicans, the Clevelands quickly acknowledge they’re in a minority, which is why they’re using their position as pastors of a church, Koinonia Congregation, to educate people about issues of biblical significance. “We need to approach voting with prayer and education,” Paul said.

Both sides of the same-sex “marriage” debate have been educating voters on their views since the Maryland General Assembly passed the Civil Marriage Protection Act last March. The Maryland Marriage Alliance responded by rounding up 162,000 signatures—nearly three times the necessary amount—to get a referendum vote on the ballot.

What's Being Taught?

COLUMBUS, GA -Juno is a movie that follow the challenges facing a pregnant teen, and it is a reality for thousands of teenagers across the country.

27-year-old Lakeia Whatley says she was one of them. At 15-years-old, Whatley found out she was pregnant and gave birth to a little girl when she was 16.

"I pretty much lost everything. I had to get a GED. I had to get a job at 15," said Whatley.

With her daughter entering the 6^th grade next year, Whatley plans on being extremely open with her and wants the school system to do the same with sex education.

"Go into detail. Tell them everything from the kiss to everything. Don't leave anything out," said Whatley.

Sex education has been a source of controversy for decades, but it has been shoved into the spotlight in recent months after nationwide media coverage showed for almost two years some New York City schools have been providing birth control and even the so-called morning after pill to some girls as young as 14-years-old whose parents did not an sign opt out form from their pregnancy-prevention program.

"It's very appalling. You know, I can't imagine that my own child would, if given the choice, would do something like that," said Columbus mother, Cheryl Swanier.

Swanier is a mother of four kids and cannot imagine having a policy like the one in New York City Schools in schools here.

"Quite frankly, I don't know how I would respond," said Swanier.

According to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, only 35 states and the District of Columbia have laws mandating school districts must have some form of sex or HIV education.

Georgia is included in that list.

"The state of Georgia adopted an abstinence focused type of curriculum. What that is, we do promote abstinence which is waiting until you are a long-term, faithful, committed relationship when you are older," said Lisa Roberts with the Health and Fitness Instructional Specialist with the Muscogee County School District.

Roberts says in Columbus sex education is part of the health curriculum and begins when students reach middle school.

"We look in all three grades at learning how to believe in yourself and standing up for yourself and getting away from unhealthy relationships," said Roberts.

Using a curriculum called Choosing the Best, Roberts says what is covered in each grade varies a bit. It progresses from only lightly touching on pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases to talking about why teenagers may become sexually active and negative influences like alcohol.

Then, the subjects are more in-depth in high school.

"It is looking at more disease prevention. It's looking at the HIV and aids rate with teenagers," said Roberts.

Roberts explains the district follows the Georgia Performance Standards for both high school and middle school. It is also a state requirement that each district have a sex education advisory committee to approve the curriculum in the schools, and parents can choose to not allow their child to participate.

"If you choose to be sexually active then there is the possibility that sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy could occur. Contraception may help, but they are not a guarantee," said Roberts.

Alabama law also requires schools have sex and HIV education as part of the curriculum in the classroom. Auburn City Schools Superintendent Karen DeLano says they follow state standards and start in 5th grade continuing through 12th grade.

"We want our students to understand the emotional consequences that come with choices when they are thinking about sexual activity," said DeLano.

DeLano says Alabama puts a strong emphasis on abstinence, overall wellness, and also allows parents to have their kids opt out.

"We do want to make sure they understand that these are life choices that can affect them for the remainder of their lives," said DeLano.

"Parents need to be open and honest and don't be afraid to go ahead and breach the subject with their teens," said Pamela Fair with the Columbus Department of Public Health.

Fair says they've seen about 700 teens at their teen clinic, Adolescent Health, since October 2011.
She says even though it can be uncomfortable, parents need to talk with their kids about abstinence or safe sex.

"If they are sexually active many teens do not fully understand how they contract a sexually transmitted disease, how they prevent a sexually transmitted disease and what the symptoms are," said Fair.    
    
Swanier says she agrees with the abstinence focused curriculum that her kids are learning about in Georgia schools.

"Truly, I am more than 200% in agreement with," said Swanier.

 Whatley says because of her experiences as a teen mom, she encourages families to be open.

"Tell your momma, so she can get you some birth control. Tell your daddy, so he can get you some condoms. Protect yourself, and if you are going to do it, let somebody know that you are going to do it," said Whatley.

Officials say in Alabama, schools are not allowed to hand out any form of contraception. In Georgia, however, officials say it is up to each district to decide whether or not to provide contraception to students in Muscogee County, they do not give out contraception.