Risky sex behavior increases in teens with smartphones

Study: Smartphones may make it easier for teens to arrange sexual encounters.

SAN FRANCISCO — Teens who own a smartphone may be at increased risk for engaging in risky sex behavior, a new study suggests.

In the study, teens who had access to the Internet on their cellphones were more than twice as likely to engage in sex with a person they met online compared with those without access to the Internet on their phones. Teens with smartphones were also more likely to be sexually active in general, and more likely to say they had been approached for sex online.

The results held even after the researchers accounted for factors that could affect sexual behavior and cellphone use, such as age, gender, race and sexual orientation.

The study was presented here on Oct. 30 at the annual meeting of the America Public Health Association.

Smartphones likely aren't directly causing risky teen sex, said study researcher Eric Rice, of the University of Southern California's School of Social Work in Los Angeles. Rather, smartphones may make it easier for teens to arrange sexual encounters, Rice said. 

"It's a tool through which this sort of behavior can happen," Rice said.

While parents have come up with strategies to monitor the online behavior of their kids on computers, "I don’t know that we've thought through quite as clearly what it means for teens to have the Internet on their phones 24 hours a day," Rice said.

Rice said sex education programs should start to include discussions regarding the risks of seeking sex online. In addition, parents should use this as an opportunity to begin a discussion with their teen about sexual health and use of technology, he said.

"I don't want parents to freak out," Rice said.

The study involved about 1,840 high-school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District who were surveyed in the 2010 to 2011 school year. The majority (71 percent) identified as Hispanic or Latino.

About one-third said they had a smartphone, 5 percent said they used the Internet to seek sex partners, and 17 percent said they had been approached for sex online. For comparison, a Nielson survey released in September found about 58 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds now own a smartphone. Differences in demographic factors may have also played a role in smartphone ownership.

Forty-seven percent of teens who owned a smartphone said they were sexually active, compared with 35 percent of those who did not own a smartphone.

Teach Kids About Dangers of Porn, But Don't Let the Sex Ed Crowd Do It

A head teachers group has called for children, some as young as 10, to learn about the dangers of pornography as part of sex education classes. Kids are bombarded with sexualised images in the media on a daily basis, and hardcore porn is only ever an online click away. There is no doubt in my mind that they need to be aware of the way that porn can wreck their future relationships.

Research recently released by the University of Plymouth shows that it is having a devastating impact on a generation of youngsters. Some children start viewing this stuff at age 11. Many become hooked on it. It twists and distorts their view of sex, so when they enter a relationship as adults their attitude to intimacy is warped. In the minds of young men, woman should behave like porn stars in the bedroom - because that's what they've watched since their childhood.

Sadly, many teenage girls believe they must perform exactly like that. Not yet emotionally mature, they go along with a boyfriend's relentless pressure to act out the fantasies he has been viewing on the internet. She poses while he takes pictures or videos. It's just for the two of them, he promises. But when he's dumped her for some other girl the images and videos get passed around his mates and, oops, get uploaded to the internet.

The explosion of free online porn, much of it populated with that sort of material, has alarmed many experts. Known as 'tube' sites, users upload their own made-at-home content. Because it's freely available, the sites rarely put any mechanism in place to block under-18s from viewing it.

In days when teenagers, and younger kids, often have laptops in their bedrooms or smartphones in their pockets, this material is all too easy to access. Parents try their best to manage their children's internet use, but many will be oblivious to the real extent of the problem. There has been talk that the government should impose an automatic block on all online adult content. If an over-18 user wants the block removed, they would have to request it from their internet provider. The problem is so great, that I believe we do need a solution like that.

Until then, isn't it a good idea to teach children about the dangers as part of sex education classes? Sorry, but I just don't trust the sex education crowd to do it properly. They've been part of the problem for decades. Take for example this latest project by a team of 'sexual health professionals' in Coventry and Warwickshire. They've developed a website and app aimed at kids as young as 13. It has tips on oral and anal intercourse, how to lose your virginity, and a body map of erogenous zones.

No doubt they think they're being edgy to grab the attention of hard-to-reach youths. But this value-free approach to sex is what has caused this mess in the first place. As adults we are supposed to give our children boundaries, and one of them should be don't mess around with sex. Parents would like to see more of this, but the sex education lobby dance around the issue of genuine parental involvement. Just leave it to the experts, they say. If mums and dads knew the half of what is really taught in sex education, they'd be horrified. Which is why I don't trust them to teach the risks of porn to 10-year-olds.

Sex abuse conviction doesn’t stop Granite School Board candidate

b>Richard W. Jones facing incumbent Dan Lofgren for 1 of 3 seats on Granite Board.

Stuart C. Reid: Sex education is a parental responsibility

Jessica Augustas (CQ) (left) leads a rally for Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood Action Council holds a rally in the Capitol Rotunda in support of Sen. Stephen Urguhart's bill that would revise Utah's sex education.

During this year's legislative session, there was considerable debate over sex education in Utah schools. The issues debated covered many ongoing concerns, including whether sex education should be offered in schools at all, "abstinence-only" should be taught, instruction on contraception should be allowed, "opt-out" of sex-education should be permitted and what kind of human sexuality should be taught. Legislation was proposed, passed and then vetoed by the Governor. As these issues were argued, parental responsibility was not focused on or advanced.

There is really nothing new in the sex education debate. In one form or another similar debates have been ongoing since the early 1960s, when sex education was initiated at the dawn of the so-called "sexual revolution" — a revolution that continues today with all of its consequences. Some have described the sexual revolution as the enlightenment of a new morality for society, while others identify it as nothing more or less than the old immorality.

Nonetheless, with the advent of the sexual revolution, government determined that parents were ill-equipped to manage the sexual education of their own children in their homes. Since then, many parents have conceded the point by fully abdicating the responsibility for sex education to the government. Not surprisingly then, the recent round of debates ended with the popular notion of maintaining the government controlled, sex education status quo. Once again, parental responsibility was shoved aside with most of the long-held principles that conflict with the sexual revolution.

If it were not enough that parental responsibility is too often relinquished, more tragically children's innocence is being violated by the sexual revolution, and what is nearly as catastrophic is that too many adults do not realize what is happening to both children and society as a whole. Increasingly, children are being victimized by the morals of the sexual revolution and society is becoming more coarse because the once protective shield of parental responsibility is vanishing.

For example, since the emergence of government-controlled sex education and its promised benefits, there are now more children exposed to pornography and sexual activity at a younger age; there are more teen pregnancies and children born out of wedlock; there are more cases of sexually transmitted diseases and more abortions; and there are more non-traditional marriages, more not marrying at all or divorcing. Regrettably, under these trends, far too many children are suffering because adult self-interest is valued over parental responsibility and the interests of children.

The education ministry establishes porn investigative team

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – An investigative team has been put in place to probe pornographic videos allegedly involving students.

It was set up by Education Minister Dr Jacqui Quinn-Leandro and will be headed by Director of Education Jacintha Pringle.

The investigative team will seek to identify students involved in the sex tapes, their ages, parents as well as their partners.

Once those matters are determined, the ministry will collaborate with the police and ministry of social transformation and welfare where necessary.

For several weeks, the short videos have become viral on social media, especially among Blackberry users.

As many as six pornographic videos showing students in school uniforms and clearly showing their faces have been in circulation.

The minister described the disturbing trend as a matter of grave concern to education officials.

Pringle will get assistance from Senior Education Officer Clare Browne and Education Officer responsible for Health and Family Life Education Andrea Airall.

More education officials would be assigned to the team if the need arises.

Meantime, Dr Quinn-Leandro said the team would also be reviewing the current cellular phone policy in schools.

Our View: Sex ed option good idea

We support state Sen. Stuart Reid, R-Ogden, in his effort to pass a bill that would allow parents the option of receiving sex education training in order to teach their children sex education at home.

A lot of parents, for various reasons, are concerned about their children being taught sex education in a public school.

This seems to us to be an excellent option. Parents can take an active role in the subject and their children will not suffer by being denied the needed lessons on sex.

The bill, presented to the Education Interim Committee, is in draft form. It merits being a priority in the 2013 legislative session.

Reid says that he has been assured by analysts that implementing the training would cost virtually nothing. State School Superintendent Martell Menlove has added that the state Office of Education will have no problems creating a training manual for parents.

Perhaps most importantly, the Utah PTA has given Reid’s bill a qualified endorsement. According to Dawn Davies, vice president of legislative affairs with the Utah PTA, so long as any funding the bill might need is provided for, the PTA is behind it.

As we have mentioned, providing training for parents to teach their children sex education will have at most, a minimal cost. More importantly, it provides a method to get sex education taught to children whose parents don’t want it taught to their kids in school.

As Reid told the Standard-Examiner, he was surprised to learn — while discussing sex education as part of his duties as a state legislator — that many parents do not teach it to their kids. "Parents need to take that responsibility. This is the most intimate topic in the lives of their children, and they should teach sex education with their values," he said.

He’s correct; and anything we can do in schools to help children learn sex education responsibly is a plus.

Sex harassment rife in 'a man's world', according to Human Rights Commission report

Four out of five victims of sexual harassment are women and those aged under 40 are the most likely targets.

WOMEN who speak out about sexual harassment at work are more likely to be labelled troublemakers by their colleagues, become ostracised and, in extreme cases, even demoted. 

Sex education needs to begin earlier

When should sex education begin for children?

According to some parent groups who advised the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), not until grades 5 and 6. Under this pressure, ACARA pushed back sex education, revising their original guidelines that introduced it at years 3 and 4.

But just as we’ve decided to push back sexual education to later years, the media has been full of discussion about the sexualisation of children, the effects of marketing on children’s body image and concerns about kids’ exposure to pornography.

Yet what the public and media have misunderstood here is the capacity for sex education to help combat the negative messages children are learning about sex and their bodies.

We have confused children learning about sex in an appropriate educational context with the sexualisation of children.

Look to the evidence
There is complete agreement in the literature that healthy sexual development is dependent on two-way communication between adults and children, and this needs to begin early.

Research from the fields of child abuse and sexual assault tell us that we should begin to teach children the proper names of their sexual body parts, like “vagina”, “penis” and “anus”, right from the start (in the toddler years) and certainly after school has begun.

This gives children a common language to speak about and understand concepts like acceptable and unacceptable touching.

Later on in the middle school years, children’s perceptions of sex and their bodies change. If looking at my son’s bookshelf is anything to go by, we can reliably call these the “Bum Joke years”.

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada describe this stage as a time of curiosity, including delight in rude jokes and an interest in, and the capacity to understand, how babies are conceived.

Children are already interested, so now is not the time to shut down the conversation. To do so teaches children something else: that this is a topic fit only for school playground humour.

When does puberty begin?
Children need to understand the practical details of managing puberty before it begins to happen in their own bodies, as well as their peers'. And there is increasing evidence that puberty is happening earlier and earlier.

A US study of 4,000 children, published online last week found that boys are reaching puberty 2 years earlier than previously believed. On average “white” boys started puberty at 10, and “black” children at age 9. Other studies have suggested that girls are also beginning puberty earlier.

If we want to introduce children to some of the stages of puberty before it begins, then certainly, year 6 is too late. By the time children reach years 5 and 6, even if covered partly in the previous years, they need to be taught the practical side of the physical, emotional and social changes they’re seeing.

With the advantage of an existing language and capacity to discuss sexual matters these children are more able to critique the media messages and images that they come across.

In recent years, many primary school teachers I work with have, in response to children’s concerns, changed their programs to deal with body image, students’ viewing of pornography online, and exclusion of children who do not fit “prescribed” boy or girl interests.

Growing minds
It seems self-evident but children grow in to teenagers. The fourth National Survey of Students Sexual Health, which surveyed almost 3,000 students in years 10 and 12, found that one quarter of Australian adolescents have sexual intercourse by year 10, and 50% by year 12.

80% have had some kind of sexual interaction such as deep kissing and sexual touching by year 10.
More teenagers are having sex with more partners, and the amount of unwanted encounters is also on the rise. More than a third of high school students have experienced unwanted sex, particularly young women.
Other studies have shown that Australian young people find it hard to communicate sexual boundaries.

Because some programs spend their time trying to stop young people from being sexual, rather than helping them towards a healthy sexuality, young people miss the opportunity to consider “how far do I want to go?”
The other important criticism offered by young people is that sex education is often limited to biology and disease without giving them the chance to reflect on their values and priorities. Perhaps, again, we fear that this kind of conversation will give young people license to have sex. Instead we find they are less likely to experience unplanned pregnancies, STIs and sexual coercion.

School-based education programs that focus on helping young people develop values and skills around relationships and sexual decision-making make a difference.

Greater knowledge
The evidence shows clearly that sexual learning starts before Grades 5 and 6. Before puberty, knowledge is vital to happily managing our sexual lives.

Our job as educators and parents and policy makers, is not to seal children from their sexual development, nor is it to stop the conversation. We have a part to play in setting guidelines and expectations around this aspect of children’s lives, as we do any other.

Jenny Walsh is the Coordinator of Sexuality Education Programs with the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University.

Anti-sex-trafficking Proposition 35 is surprisingly controversial

Measure to toughen penalties for sex trafficking faces opposition from some veteran advocates and academics in the field of human trafficking.

Daphne Phung quit her job as a financial analyst to work full-time on getting tougher penalties for sex trafficking. 

Three years ago, on Valentine's Day weekend, a 34-year-old financial analyst happened upon a TV documentary series about sex trafficking in the United States.

Her friends were sound asleep in the next room, after a long day of snowboarding. Daphne Phung couldn't take her eyes off the screen and didn't sleep a wink that night. Echoing in her ear was the voice of one Ukrainian woman who was brought to the U.S. and forced into prostitution, telling the interviewer she never got justice for what was done to her.

Phung began researching the topic with like-minded friends, huddled around the kitchen table in her Fremont apartment. Two years in, she quit her job to work on the issue full time.

Now, Phung is the driving force behind a proposition on the November ballot that dramatically increases prison sentences and fines for traffickers and makes other sweeping changes to California's laws on human trafficking. Polls show voters favor it by a larger margin than any other proposition, and it is endorsed by a long list of prosecutors, law enforcement officials and politicians up and down the state. The campaign is backed by more than $2 million from Chris Kelly, Facebook's former privacy chief — while opponents have yet to raise a cent.

"I'm from Vietnam, a country where people don't trust the law to protect them," said Phung, who came to the U.S. as an 8-year-old and was naturalized when she was in college. The documentary, she said, "challenged my faith and my belief in America as the country that claims to provide freedom and equal protection for everyone."

If Proposition 35 passes, sex trafficking of a minor with force or fraud could be punished with up to a life term in prison — a crime currently punishable with a maximum eight-year sentence. It would also increase the fine for trafficking crimes to up to $1.5 million from the current cap of $100,000 and expand the definition of human trafficking to include creation and distribution of child pornography.

Its backers say the proposition brings the severity of punishments under state law up to par with federal cases, and will protect the public by requiring traffickers to register as sex offenders. They say the measure, known as the "Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act," will also prevent re-victimization of those who are trafficked by prohibiting evidence of their commercial sex acts from being introduced in court.

Yet the proposition faces opposition from some veteran advocates and academics in the field of human trafficking who say the proposition, while bringing much-needed attention to the issue, is misguided and would probably have unintended consequences that could end up harming trafficking victims. They say the measure's approach of simply toughening penalties would do little to combat a multifaceted problem.
"At the core of their campaign is emotion and not fact, and not a true understanding of what's going on," said John Vanek, a retired lieutenant from the San Jose Police Department who works as a consultant on trafficking and has sat on state and federal committees on the issue.

Critics expressed concern that the hefty criminal fines that would be imposed under the proposition would hurt the chances of victims to be compensated in civil court — a process they said is a fundamental part of making a victim of human trafficking whole.

"The victims should be paid for their labor, whether their labor is picking fruit, cleaning someone's home or prostitution," Vanek said. "At the end of the day, one of the core processes in the path for a slave or a victim to regain their dignity is to be compensated for their work."

The proposition designates that the funds collected through the increased fines be doled out to law enforcement and victim service organizations. Even so, some organizations that would receive the funding said they were opposed.

"To take money from their victimization that would otherwise go to them directly is really not right," said Kay Buck, chief executive of Los Angeles-based Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, one of the oldest groups working with human trafficking victims.

Kathleen Kim, a professor at Loyola Law School who coauthored California's current law, passed in 2005, said she found the Proposition 35's focus on sex trafficking problematic. She said the proposition's authors were conflating the problem of sexual exploitation through prostitution with the broader, more complex issue of trafficking.

Under the proposition, a labor trafficker would receive up to 12 years in prison, and the forced sex trafficking of an adult would garner sentences up to 20 years, and in the case of a minor, up to a life term.
The backers of Proposition 35 "represent a part of the anti-trafficking movement that wants a focus on sex trafficking crimes over labor trafficking," Kim said. "The sentencing hierarchy is not backed by any empirical evidence, and it sends the wrong message."

Such concerns are not reflected on the voter information guide, nor were they expressed at an informational hearing held before a joint Senate and Assembly committee in Sacramento. The official opposition on the Secretary of State's Voter Information Guide is signed by representatives of the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project, a sex workers group that advocates for decriminalization of prostitution, and Starchild, a libertarian activist who also works as a bisexual escort and exotic dancer.

Vanek said those within the human trafficking field with serious concerns about the proposition simply did not get organized in time. In late September, he launched a "No on Proposition 35" blog and posted criticisms from academics, victim service providers and an attorney from the California attorney general's office.

Sharmin Bock, an Alameda County prosecutor who helped draft the measure, said the proposition comes from her experiences working "in the trenches" going after traffickers. Bock said her office has prosecuted more than 250 sex traffickers in the six years since the state law went into effect and had secured 177 convictions as of April.

Phung, for her part, says the proposition is the beginning, not the end, of the fight.

After initially contacting numerous groups working on the issue to volunteer her services, she said she decided "if you're going to do anything, you've got to do it yourself." She formed her group, Californians Against Slavery, and began organizing rallies, knocking on doors in Sacramento and gathering signatures.

If the proposition passes, she says, she'll take a long-overdue vacation — after all, she's spent all her free time in the last three years lobbying in Sacramento. After that, she'll get a job, she says, probably in finance.

Sex Education for ill prepared parents

Many UVU students and faculty brought up a different angle on the subject of sex education: Why isn’t there a focus on sex education for parents?

Recently, Gov. Herbert discussed maintaining the current sex education laws in Utah requiring schools to teach sex ed and abstinence but not about STDs or contraceptives.

Many people believe that sex education should be taught in the home. Others argue that leaving it in the parents’ hands leaves many children uneducated and uninformed.

Psychology professor Matt Draper said, “Regulations are never the best answer. No one is getting adequate sex education. The question is: Whose job is it to teach? We don’t need more sex ed for kids. We need it for parents.”

Almost everyone will agree that more needs to be taught on the subject. Jeremy, a student, said, “Sex is a natural part of life, so why not teach it? We talk about death, murder and genocide but don’t talk about sex.”
Many students say they learned about sex from their friends. A few said they learned about it from their parents. Almost everyone admitted that they did not feel they had adequate education on the subject.
Shelly, a student and a mom, said, “I think parents should be the primary educators, but they should be taught how to teach. I learned what I know from my sisters and from romance novels.”

Sol Gordon has a Ph.D and is the author of several books on parent-child communication and sexuality, and he advocates teaching kids about sex at home. In the Gordons article “Why Sex Education Also Belongs In the Home,” it says, “the best way to help your children develop healthy attitudes about sex is through example. If parents are honest and also well informed, children will learn the value of knowing the facts. If parents are generous with affection for the child and spouse, youngsters will themselves learn to be loving partners and parents. In effect, if parents are comfortable with their own sexuality, children will have an excellent opportunity to learn how to lead sexually healthy lives. And they will have learned how from the people who can teach them best—their parents.”

The idea of teaching parents how to be better educators for their children is not new. It appears that many people are unhappy with how the topic of sex is taught to children. Educating parents may be an answer to this discontent.

Nigeria: 'Sending Children to Boarding Schools Is Risking Value Transmission'

Principal of Whitesands School, Lekki, Dr. Lorenzo David, who recently marked his 30 years of stay in Nigeria, told Funmi Ogundare why parents should not consider the option of sending their children to boarding schools and why sex education should be taught at home, among other issues

Tell us about the school and your achievements since inception?
Whitesands School is a project of Ikota Educational Foundation (IEF), established in October 2000. It is quite unlike any other school that you find having one proprietor. It is a foundation that is non-government and not for profit, which means we collect fees quite alright to be able to run the school, but then any surplus that we generate is not pocketed by the trustees who constitute the foundation.

Our educational model is based on the set of principles that ensures an adequate training to each student, both at school and in the family. At the request of IEF, the Prelature of Opus Dei, an institution of the Catholic Church, provides spiritual and doctrinal formation to the students, staff and parents of the school without assuming its legal or moral responsibilities.

The foundation has a constitution covered by the Nigerian laws. Its aim is to promote education, social welfare and character formation and the school is the first project of the foundation. I have been principal of the school for only two years, but I have been here from the beginning 12 years ago as a founding director.

In a world of moral decadence and erosion of family values, what is the role of your school in re-inventing the essence of family values?
Whitesands school is a family school because we promote family values of the Opus Dei where love, freedom, responsibility should be preached. In the last two years, I have been talking to the fathers one-on-one about the adolescent issues that their children are facing.

I tell them the importance of getting close to the boys and talking about sex. In this school, we do not teach sex education because it is a very sticky topic that cannot be taught in the classroom. It is wrong as far as we are concerned. We teach Biology. Sex education should be taught at home by parents.

The school curriculum may have it, but it is very bad. What is sex education about? Using condoms? From the beginning you have already condemned the children by teaching them such in schools. It is wrong. It is part of human activities. It is sacred. You do not play it the way the World Health Organisation (WHO) assumes because it is for man and woman who are married and want to have children. We teach them Biology and invite the fathers one-on-one and tell them to teach their children that.

These days many parents send their children to boarding schools, what is your view about this?
Boarding destroys the family fabric; it does violence to the child. There is no reason for removing the child from the family as far as I am concerned.

That is why Whitesands is a day school set on family values. Parents who send their children to boarding schools at the adolescent stage of the child are actually gambling their future in the sense that the character formation of the child has to come from home.

In boarding schools, the child grows up under the care of house masters. It is antiquated. Boarding schools used to be good for the country in the 60s and 70s when schools were few and far between. When you look around how many secondary school students in Germany are in boarding schools? How many in the US, Brazil, China and Japan? You don't find boarding schools there. You only find boarding schools in Ghana, Nigeria and UK, it is an invention of the British. The first phase of a child is from age 0 to 18 years when his character has crystallised, which is what I use to tell parents and once you have a crystal, you cannot change it.

The only way to change it is to break it. Unfortunately, this is what happens to children whose character was formed badly and then you see delinquency. Children should grow up at home, close to the parents and under their watchful eyes. So here the boys go from home every day.

We tell the parents that it is important that they see their children every day. You are the person who loves your child the most, nobody can claim that. Even if the principal says I love your child as much as you love him, it cannot happen. The only thing we can do is to be effective professionals by playing our roles.

How has it been living in Nigeria for 30 years and what have you inject into the school as its principal?
I like Nigeria and that is why I am here. I have always been involved in education projects. As a member of the Opus Dei, I got interested in their projects and volunteered to come to Nigeria. I came as a student of University of Ibadan. I did my PhD here and was also involved in the promotion of Irawo Education Centre in Ibadan. Here in Whitesands, the challenge is to run the school well and implement our educational philosophy. It is the unique part of our school and getting the best teachers. What makes our school different from others is our philosophy. The challenges here are basically regulation and regulators cannot cope with our pace. Another thing is changing policies in the sector.

How often does the school train its teachers?
Whitesands trains its teachers very often such that every break-time, we have series of seminars and workshops. We train and re-train them and send them abroad for courses. We recently sent two teachers to Spain for a nine-month master's programme and also at the Lagos Business School (LBS) for courses. We have substantial amount in our budget dedicated for staff training.

What is your view about the recent review of the basic education curriculum by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC)?
There is need for schools to reduce the content overload. In the last management meeting, we identified about six or seven subjects. So even if the council implemented it, it is already in line with the law. In our school, the students don't have problems with academics, even if they do; we have been able to push them ahead. What is so unique about

Whitesands is that we are able to lift even the average students to above average level and to achieve excellence. We move our students from 50 and 75 to 80 per cent, which I think is a lot of merit on our part. The average student at the end of the day, end up in universities abroad.

How can we improve the standard of education in Nigeria?
The standard is dependent on three things; funding and material resources, as well as philosophy of the school. With the funding, you will have the material resources, but these alone do not make a good school.
Here we have a strong philosophy that we keep on repeating to the teachers. We talk to them and they talk differently because they understand the philosophy, we are driven by it. For all our operations and procedures here, rules and regulations are about the philosophy of the school. What makes the school what it is, is about material and human resources.

The human resources plug into our educational philosophy. The few schools that have the material resources do not paint the pictures well. Other schools try to copy Whitesands, but the difficult thing is the educational philosophy that we have is something we learnt from the spirit of Opus Dei. In Nigeria you find 419ers who have degrees. Having a degree does not mean you are educated.

Having a degree is just to have a piece of paper. Having education as they say is what you have left when you have lost everything. What is left or what stands out is your character, which will determine whether you are educated or not.

Providing Contraception Through School-Based Sexual Health Services

Most young people under the age of 16 are not having sex and the majority of people - parents, professionals and young people - agree that young people, including those under 16, have a right to confidential advice and treatment as required.

This right to confidentiality is enshrined in case law following the case of Gillick vs West Norfolk and Wisbech AHA & DHSS 1986 in which Ms Gillick took the Health Authority to court for failing to consult with her about providing her daughter with contraception. Lord Justice Fraser who ruled in the case ruled that it is legal for health professionals to provide contraceptive advice and treatment if the young person has sufficient maturity and judgement to enable them fully to understand what is proposed. The case identified the following five expectations of best practice which have come to be known as the Fraser Guidelines:

• the young person will understand the professional's advice;
• the young person cannot be persuaded to inform their parents;
• the young person is likely to begin, or to continue having, sexual intercourse with or without contraceptive treatment;
• unless the young person receives contraceptive treatment, their physical or mental health, or both, are likely to suffer;
• the young person's best interests require them to receive contraceptive advice or treatment with or without parental consent.

Evidence shows that high quality sex and relationships education, provided by parents and at school, combined with access to free, confidential sexual health services delays the age young people first have sex and increases the likelihood they will use contraception when they do have sex. Evidence also shows that access to contraception reduces teenage pregnancy - in England our rates are now the lowest they have been for over 40 years.

Contraceptive advice and treatment in schools or Further Education colleges is provided by highly trained health professionals, often with the support of equally skilled youth workers. It is not new for schools or Further Education colleges to provide these services which are developed in consultation with parents, young people and the community. Indeed you can find articles that I have written about this issue earlier this year:

Over many years parents have told me they hope their children won't have sex too early. They also hope that their children will be able to talk to them with any questions about relationships, sex or sexuality. Many of them also say they accept that may not feel possible and that in those circumstances they absolutely want their children to be able to get the help and advice they need from health professionals, especially if the alternative is they are denied the support and information that will help protect them from harm.

We must challenge the myth that health professionals undermine parents wherever we hear it. It has the potential to unfairly and unnecessarily damage the confidence parents have in health professionals.

Over the past almost 50 years since Brook was established we have learnt that the younger someone is that comes to us for advice and treatment the more likely they will be in need of emotional and practical support and advice that goes well beyond the provision of contraception. All of us must be committed to ensuring they get that support. We have also learnt that the individual and personal circumstances of the young person will also determine who they can and feel able to trust.

I, like most sensible adults who work with young people, want them to be safe and happy, and to only have sex when they are able to enjoy and take responsibility for it. Sexual health services and the professionals who work in them tirelessly day in day out are fundamental to achieving that goal. Central to the work they do is ensuring young people understand their rights, the law, the importance of consent, health risks and how to protect against them. If they believe there is a risk of harm or abuse they will ensure that young person is supported appropriately.

Brook's strategy states "children and young people deserve the best support and services so they can take responsibility for and enjoy their relationships, sex and sexual health. We must have high expectations for them so they can set high expectations for themselves." 

This isn't the first time that there has been a moral panic about young people under 16 and sex and contraception and I know it won't be the last. All the evidence shows there is a broad consensus in support of sex and relationships education and young people's rights to access confidential advice and treatment in the UK. And it is good to see this reiterated by Dr Dan Poulter, the Health Minister who states unequivocally in The Daily Telegraph that 'young people under the age of 16 are legally able to access contraceptive and sexual health services and any advice given will be kept confidential'.

Researchers to debate benefits of sexual abstinence education in schools

Researchers from Sheffield Hallam University have said that introducing abstinence education into schools in the UK could be a less effective substitute for Sex Education. 

A debate on the issues surrounding abstinence education is to be hosted by Sheffield Hallam and their partners as part of the Economic and Social Research Council Festival of Social Science 2012.

Dr Julia Hirst, from the Sheffield Hallam University Public Health Hub has said that the event is intended to "bring together politicians, teachers, youth workers, young people and their parents to discuss the re-emergence in our society of views promoting abstinence education in schools and youth settings."

Currently available research does not support the view that the only way to avoid unintended pregnancy, Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV is through teaching and implementing absolute abstinence from sexual activity. In fact research in the US highlights the negative outcomes of teaching abstinence as far more severe. Abstinence education can lead to “increased risks of unprotected sex and... reluctance to seek advice or treatment related to sexual health and relationship matters," according to Steve Slack Sheffield’s Director of the Centre for Sexual Health.

Evidence shows that access to Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) can have a positive effect on increasing the age of the first sexual encounter of individuals. SRE does provide strategies and support for young people who wish to abstain from sexual activity. However, by providing SRE young people who wish to partake in sexual activities have a better understanding on safer sexual practices, reducing the risk of unprotected sex and unwanted pregnancies as well as STI’s.

A greater focus on the issue of relationships, safe sex and sexuality should be included in SRE according to research and this should be provided to young people earlier than is currently the case. Steve Slack confirms that "sex education overall is too little and too late and often fails to address young people’s expressed needs for across-the-board sex and relationships education."

Dr Hirst claims that we should take influence from SRE in the Netherlands and Sweden where STI’s, unwanted pregnancy and relationship abuse is far lower than in the UK.

The Saying 'No' to Sexual Abstinence event is due to be held at Sheffield Hallam on November 5th 2012.

Police call for school sex case alerts to be issued to parents

State Education Minister Grace Portolesi. Picture: Brooke Whatnall 

POLICE have joined community groups and child abuse experts in demanding parents be told about any incidents of sex abuse in schools. 

The calls increase pressure on the Education Department, which allegedly gagged a western suburbs school council from telling parents about a staff member who was convicted of the sexual assault of a student in 2010.

Department policy does not require disclosure of sexual abuse in schools.

Education Minister Grace Portolesi said yesterday she was not aware if the department had pressured the school into keeping details of the abuse secret but would appoint "within days" someone to head an independent investigation into the incident.

"I am committed to getting to the bottom of what has transpired," she said.

The State Ombudsman has also been investigating the matter since March.

Mark Christopher Harvey of Largs North was convicted in February this year of unlawful sexual intercourse with a young girl in 2010 while she was attending his out-of-hours school care program.

Child protection expert UniSA Emeritus Professor Freda Briggs said parents on the school's governing council approached her about a year ago because they were unhappy parents had not been informed.

"They were concerned because they claimed that an administrator from the department had banned them from telling other parents what had happened," she said.

"They were concerned because they thought there could be other victims."

Ms Portolesi said she had no knowledge of other cases where parents were kept in the dark.

Prof Briggs said it was not the first time she had been told that claims of sexual abuse were being kept secret.
Ms Portolesi has been under fire this week after she told Parliament on Tuesday her department had kept details of Harvey's misdemeanours secret on the advice of police.

SA Police later released a statement rejecting that and yesterday a police spokesperson told The Advertiser parents had a right to know if allegations or charges had been levelled against a teacher or staff member.
"SAPOL believes that guardians and parents of children placed in a position of potential harm should be made aware of incidents such as these," the spokesperson said.

"This is so they have the appropriate information to assess whether their child may have been a victim of abuse.

"It also gives parents an avenue to voice or share concerns and information with the school.
"While there may be times where SAPOL requests some evidentiary information is withheld, as it may impact the ongoing investigation or judicial process, that would certainly not preclude generic details being given."

SA Association of State School Organisations director David Knuckey said he had been flooded with calls expressing outrage that such information was withheld.

"If the current policy does not require parents to immediately be informed when their child has been at risk, it should be changed," he said.

SA Association of School Parent Clubs president Jenice Zerna said schools must be "open and transparent" with parents.

The State Ombudsman has also been investigating since March.

Departmental policy is to deal with schools and police to decide on action following incidents, Ms Portolesi said, but it depended on "the circumstances surrounding the individual case" as to whether parents were notified.

A spokeswoman for Premier Jay Weatherill, who was education minister when the 2010 incident occurred, said he found out about the case on Tuesday.

In Parliament he said the Government did need to explain to parents why it kept the information secret.

Education Minister Grace Portolesi denies misleading Parliament over sex predator who ran out of school hours care

SA Education Minister Grace Portolesi. Picture: Brooke Whatnall 

ENSURING pedophiles found to be abusing children in schools are sent to jail is a factor in how each case is handled, Premier Jay Weatherill says. 

Today Education Minister Grace Portolesi has denied misleading Parliament over a case where man sexually abused a young girl at the out-of-hours school care program he ran in Adelaide's north-western suburbs.
Mark Christopher Harvey, of Largs North, was convicted in February this year of unlawful sexual intercourse with a young girl in 2010.

Parents are angry they were not told at the time of the charges, but Ms Portolesi told Parliament the police advised against notifying the community. Police later rejected that version of events. She has now ordered a review.

Mr Weatherill said it was important that parents were informed of any allegations.

"If I was a parent in these circumstances and there was somebody who had been a perpetrator in the midst of my children, I would want to know about it,'' he told Parliament today.

But he said it was also important not to jeopardise the chances of a successful prosecution.

"There are things to balance and one of the things we need to balance is to make sure we lock up these people when they perpetrate these evil crimes,'' Mr Weatherill said.

"One of the factors that bears on your capacity to lock someone up is not to taint the chain of evidence.''
Earlier today, Ms Portolesi said her department did not always require authorities to notify the community if abusers have access to children at schools.

Ms Portolesi said the Education Department dealt with schools and police to decide on action after incidents at schools but it depended on "the circumstances surrounding the individual case" as to whether parents were notified.

After sustained questioning Ms Portolesi said she had no knowledge of any similar cases where information had been kept from parents.

Ms Portolesi said she would prefer families were told but the department must act on expert advice.
"I suspect that somewhere along the line there has been a misunderstanding about what should or shouldn't occur," she said.

Ms Portolesi also revealed:

SHE first became aware of the case when she received a briefing note in March this year.

MARK Harvey was never registered as a teacher and was stopped from interacting with children upon his arrest.

AN Ombudsman's review into the same incident has already begun.

SHE hoped to appoint someone to head a second independent investigation on her order within a few days.

SHE had spoken about the issue with Premier Jay Weatherill, who was Education Minister in late 2010 when the incident occurred.

"I'm the minister responsible for this matter," Ms Portolesi said. "He (Mr Weatherill) has been clear that he has no recollection of these events."

Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond said parents should always be notified of concerning incidents at their child's school.

"We believe the policy should clearly be that parents have an entitlement to know, its absolutely essential," she said.

"The Minister owes ... the parents of this state an explanation."

EARLIER
STATE Education Minister Grace Portolesi has called an independent review over claims parents were not told a paedophile had access to school students.

Police yesterday contradicted Ms Portolesi's claim they advised against telling parents that an out-of-hours school care program staff member sexually assaulted a child in his care.

At 11am today, Ms Portolesi told Parliament: "In regard to the serious matters raised yesterday, I advised the House on the basis of advice given to me. However it is now apparent that there is a difference of opinion and that is cause for concern."

Ms Portolesi said this was why she would instigate an independent review of the incident.
Liberal MPs heckled Ms Portolesi across the chamber after her short statement, asking "is that it?" and if it meant she stood by her comments yesterday.

Another later described the statement as "hopeless".

Mark Christopher Harvey, of Largs North, was convicted in February this year of unlawful sexual intercourse with a young girl in 2010 while she was attending his out-of-hours school care program in the northwestern suburbs.

However, a mother of children who also used the program - who did not want to be named - has said parents were never informed.

"I just want to know why we weren't advised," she said.

"I think it's our right. I feel like a failure as a mother because I was not advised of this and was not able to help my children from the start."

Ms Portolesi emphatically told Parliament yesterday the decision to keep the information from parents had been "on the advice of SAPOL".

However, a statement released last night by SA Police said the principal of the school involved was "advised by police that she should consult with DECS (the Education Department) to formulate a method of advising the school community what had occurred".

Today, she told ABC 891 Breakfast she had not misled Parliament.

"I provided advice to Parliament on the basis of very clear advice that I had been given in writing, so that's not the case," she said.

"What's really important for me as minister to do in these very complex situations which are very serious, is that I have to defer to the advice of expertise."

Ms Portolesi said she was launching an independent review including advice given to the State Government about informing parents and the school community.

"There are three elements that need to be balanced here. The first is the fact that actions taken by any element of Government in relation to this matter, or any future matters like this, should not jeopardise a successful prosecution," she said.

"The second element is that the child in question must be protected and must not be subject to further harm.
"The third question, very important question, is the need of the community to know, the rights of the community to know."

Sex Education, Abortion, Puberty, and Saturday Mornings

When the issue is sex education in school, there are at least three groups: abstinence education, birth control education on the assumption that teen sex happens, and a third group that prefers to deal with the subject at home. All three came to mind Saturday when I drove to the Memphis Board of Education for a parents and staff meeting on sex ed or family life curriculum as it is also called. The target audience was parents, and the letter to them on the handout table began thus:

"Your child is about to begin, or may have already begun, a period of rapid growth called puberty."
It continued, "By teaching children about the wonderful ways they are maturing, adults can promote a positive attitude toward sexuality that helps children grown into healthy, responsible adults."

Puberty was not much on my mind on this beautiful October morning, possibly because my children are, thank goodness, well past it. But I expected to see at least a modestly energetic turnout of parents at a meeting to explain the new "opt in" as opposed to the old "opt out" policy for students entering those wonderful years of hair, breasts, zits, muscles, Tampax, and dirty jokes among other things. Instead, there was no crowd at all, unless you count the handful of presenters and MCS staff.

There was however, a turnout of about 40-50 people outside the Planned Parenthood office on Poplar Avenue near East Parkway that I drove past on my way to the meeting. They were mostly students from St. Benedict High School carrying anti-abortion signs. Their sponsor, Sharon Masterson, said they were members of Teens For Life and "October is the month when we focus on right-to-life issues."

At the meeting, Planned Parenthood representative Barry Chase told me opt-in, opt-out "is my personal big issue." The Society for Sex Education, he said, "says the opt-in policy presents a barrier that opt-out does not."
"We have a real problem with parental participation," Chase said. "Why require more of it when you don't have enough now?"
Witness, he said, the tiny turnout.
Cassandra Turner, speaking for MCS on the issue, said the non-turnout was not surprising considering that it was a beautiful Saturday morning with lots of other things going on.

"We want the parents involved," she said. "But parents feel more comfortable in their school."

She said opt-in as opposed to opt-out is "only a big deal to people who don't have faith in parents."
The so-called Michigan Model Family Life Curriculum has been adopted by MCS as part of its curriculum in grades 4-9. It will, according to the handout, "promote appreciation and respect for the amazing changes experienced by self and others" as well as "equip children with the skills they need to postpone sexual intercourse."

I was educated in public schools in Michigan long before AIDS and oral sex and Roe v. Wade entered the national vocabulary. As I remember the Michigan model in that era, in sixth-grade the boys were herded into one classroom and the girls another for separate sessions with gym coaches that proved to be disappointing on the sex front as far as pictures, stories, and specific information. I can't speak for the girls, of course.

As a parent, I wound up in the libertarian, we-will-take-care-of-this-at-home camp. I recall my MCS-educated children taking a Health class they considered an immense bore some time around ninth grade. A woman promoting abstinence came to a PTA meeting and told her personal story of unwanted pregnancy and later enlightenment, which was later shared with students, possibly on an opt-in basis but I can't say for sure.

Faced with writing an essay on, say, condoms as homework and sharing it with my parents, I would have felt strange as either a student or a parent. But that is the new world in which we live. I am well aware of the personal and social costs of unwanted pregnancy and am a strong proponent of family planning, etc. But it's Saturday. Now I am going into the other room to watch football.

Birds and bees

Parental sex education misses point 

One Utah legislator wants public schools to get more into the business of teaching about the birds and bees. No, we’re not talking about doing a better job of teaching teenagers about sex, contraception and sexually transmitted diseases — topics young Utahns surely need to better understand.

No, what Sen. Stuart Reid, R-Ogden, wants school teachers to do is give parents the facts so that they can, in turn, instruct their children, and public schools in the Beehive State can continue neglecting, by order of law, this most basic and necessary area of health education. 

Excuse us, but we have to say this is a goofy, back-door way to address the very real problem of ignorance about sexuality that’s so prevalent in our state. 

In the first place, where does the good senator think the schools are going to find the money to develop a sex-education curriculum for parents, when they don’t have enough resources, thanks to legislators such as Sen. Reid, to properly educate children?

Reid hasn’t done his homework on the cost of such a program, but he said he believes it would be minimal. That’s doubtful. And sorely underfunded public schools would have difficulty undertaking even a bare-bones new program to teach adults about sex. 

It seems clear that what Reid has in mind is eventually replacing the minimal sex-education course now being taught in Utah high schools with the adults-only version, since legislators could then claim that parents are not only the appropriate fount for facts about sex but they would also be trained to deliver them.

If more money is to be spent on sex education, it should be spent to bolster the current curriculum for students and make it more comprehensive — and beneficial — to the people who need it most. Incidence of STDs is rising at an alarming rate among young people in Utah, and they display an astonishing lack of knowledge about how to prevent disease and pregnancy. Teaching children and teens how to keep themselves healthy is the job of the schools, but teachers’ hands are tied by archaic laws passed by a Legislature that would rather act on useless message bills to demonstrate their opposition to abortion. Education is the key to fewer abortions, not partisan rhetoric.

The PTA now offers sex-education training for those parents who want to teach the subject at home. But there are many more who will always avoid the topic. The children of those parents, and they are probably the majority, should get accurate facts from professional educators in school.

Call for sex education

Civil society organisations have called upon schools to engage in sex education as a way of engaging young people and men in Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR).

Speaking at a meeting in Kampala at the weekend, Mityana Woman MP Sylvia Namabidde said: “Men and young people should be engaged in SRHR because when young people reach the stage of marriage without an idea on family planning, safe days and rights of women, they end up hurting people and themselves.”

Ms Namabidde added that women empowerment is undermined by men’s actions, especially through cultural norms such as denying women the right to work, not educating girls, increase in school dropout and polygamous/early marriages.

Many civil society organisations that attended the meeting said they cannot talk about rights without the roles and responsibilities of young people, because they have to attain their rights fully by demanding for their rights to be respected and observed by those in authority.

More sex education is needed to prevent underage pregnancy

Personal and Social Development lessons should be more frequent than once a week if young people are to understand the implications of becoming parents.

"Young people need to better understand the consequences of having sex and bringing kids into the world before they are ready to be parents"

 

This was one of the concluding points raised during a conference focusing on unborn children’s quality of life.
It emerged that young people need to better understand the consequences of having sex and bringing children into the world before they were ready to be parents.

Recent figures showed last year 32 babies were born to girls aged 16 or younger.

When the National Sexual Health Policy was launched two years ago, it highlighted the “scanty and uncoordinated” sexual education in many schools.

The Personal and Social Development Association had said that schools should undergo external audits to ensure sexual health education was provided in line with the national minimum curriculum.

Conference attendees also discussed the negative repercussions that smoking and drugs had on the unborn child and the need to empower mothers to take charge of their situation.

Consultant paediatrician Simon Attard Montalto said babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy were often 200 grammes lighter than other babies and their heads could be smaller.

Midwife Louise Bugeja said that too many mothers were not allowed to enjoy the pregnancy as a natural process as they was too concerned about what could go wrong medially.

During the conference, organised by the Unborn Child Movement in collaboration with the Family Ministry, those present also discussed the need to strengthen the law to offer better protection to unborn children.

Our View: Sex ed course proper call for junior high

A message left on our Sedline voicemail expressed opposition to the move to teach sexual health education to seventh- and eighth-grade students at Smith-Cotton Junior High beginning in December. We believes a stand others in our community share.

The caller said: I was very upset about the school district wanting to teach the seventh- and eighth-graders sex education, as i am sure a lot of other people were. These are just kids, why can't  we understand that and stop trying to make adults out of them? ... Sex education will do one thing: Listening to this each day will only make them curious, and make them want to go out and experiment and try it.

The fact is the junior high has experienced an increase in pregnancies, and as Principal Wade Norton told the Sedalia School District 200 Board of Education on Monday night, students are already asking teachers and counselors about reproduction and contraceptives. By initiating an abstinence-based sex education curriculum, the district isn't trying to make adults out of them,  it is trying to provide already inquisitive students with proper information about the ramifications of engaging in sexual activity.

Norton also told the board that students are receiving misinformation about reproduction, sexually transmitted diseases and contraception from unreliable sources, including friends and websites.
The Seattle Times reported in 2008 that University of Washington researchers found that teens who had comprehensive (sex) education, which typically discusses condoms and birth-control methods as well as abstinence, were no more likely to engage in intercourse than peers who were taught just to say no to sex before marriage.

Parents will have ample opportunity to learn what information the classes will include, and they will have the opportunity to withhold their child from participation. But since the program is focused on providing accurate information about sexual activity and encouraging students to hold off and make good decisions, we encourage parents to at least review the materials before rejecting it.

Ignorance is never beneficial. Junior high students are already beyond curious about reproductive issues. Providing them with appropriate information and an understanding of consequences is the best way to help them make wise choices.

NGO summoned by LHC over ‘sex education books’

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has summoned a representative of Bargad, a non-government organisation, for October 18 on a petition seeking action against the group and Education Department officials for handing out school books in Gujranwala that contain “objectionable material”.

Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh of the LHC issued this order on Tuesday on a petition filed by Muhammad Tanzeem Arif, a retired school teacher from the area.

The judge summoned the Bargad coordinator of the programme under which the books were distributed after hearing the statements of two former Gujranwala executive district officers for education on Tuesday.

Former EDO Ghazanfar Ali Sani told the court that while the books were circulated in schools during his tenure, the memorandum of understanding under which this was done was signed while Chaudhy Riaz was EDO.

Riaz confirmed this. He said that the memorandum was for the NGO to initiate a programme to teach “life skills” at schools.

According to the petitioner, the “objectionable” book  Ba Ikhtiar Larkian, Badla Hua Samaaj (Empowered Women, A Changed Society) – had been made mandatory for grades 6 to 8 at all government schools for girls in Gujranwala.

He said the book contained material telling girls about the use of contraceptives and “how to have friendships with boys”. He said in a Muslim society, sex education could not be taught at schools. He said that in signing the memorandum with the NGO, government officials were guilty of misconduct and should be punished.

He said that he had complained to government officials after learning about the book and the chief minister had set up an inquiry committee headed by Punjab Education Foundation Chairman Raja Anwar. He said the committee’s findings had not been made public.

He said that the only action apparently taken on the committee’s findings had been the transfer of Sani, the former EDO. He said that the inquiry report must be made public.

Former Gujranwala district coordination officer Nabeel Ahmed Awan, the serving DCO, the education secretary, the PEF chairman, and the Gujranwala EDO (education) are named as respondents in the petition.
Project finished
Bargad Executive Director Bushra Shaheen told The Express Tribune that the NGO had ended the project and disposed of the books shortly after Gujranwala citizens had raised objections to the content.

Sarmad Raza Naik, Bargad’s operations manager, said that the project was initiated in good faith and through the proper channels. He said that other books had also been provided to students under the project.

He said that the books in question had been handed out at schools in Sanghar district in Sindh too, but there had been no objections. He said that the inquiry committee set up by the chief minister had exonerated Bargad officials of wrongdoing.

He said that Bargad had been working with the Punjab government since 1997 and had most recently helped draft its new youth policy.

Sex education to expand in Keys schools

Parents of Florida Keys public school students will have the option to opt their child out of a new sex education curriculum that for the first time will include discussion of contraceptive options.

The new programming is made possible by a $600,000, three-year grant from the federal Department of Health and Human Services and administered locally by Womankind in partnership with the Monroe County School District.

Established in 2001, the nonprofit Key West-based Womankind provides affordable access to woman's primary, gynecological and mental healthcare.

Formerly, sex education in the Keys taught abstinence as the only way to avoid pregnancy or contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

As teacher training is completed, the new curriculum will become available to students in grades six through 10 in 15 schools countywide.

Kim Romano, executive director of Womankind, called the grant a "dream come true" and stressed the need in the Keys to combat the increasing spread of STDs among teens.

Superintendent Mark Porter lauded the collaborative effort: "It was insightful to recognize that too often schools are the captive audience and people look to us to do certain things but there isn't that necessary support to make it successful."

School Board Chairman John Dick, a critic of short-term grants that leave the district on the hook after funding stops, said that wouldn't be the case here.

"The money is used to teach the teachers," he said. "Once they know the material, they know it. It can be continued on just by teaching" other colleagues.

During a Wednesday grant announcement at Womankind's Key West office, Dick arrived to find a bowl of condoms in his seat.

He drew laughter remarking, "I'm going to make sure these always stay in the Womankind office and never make their way into the schools. To be abstinent is the best way. That's the one you've got to push the most."

Individual schools have the ability to decide which staffers will attend training and later teach the classes. The money also pays for two employees, a program coordinator to arrange training sessions and a program manager to monitor implementation.

Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders will receive instruction called Draw the Line/Respect the Line designed to postpone sexual activity and encourage condom use.

Ninth- and 10th-graders will go through the Safer Choices curriculum, which continues the message of the earlier program while adding information about the prevention of HIV, other STDs, teen pregnancy and sexual decision making.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/16/3052219/sex-education-to-expand-in-keys.html#storylink=cpy

More calls for sex education in schools

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 15, 2012): Sex education, including gender roles, should be taught in schools to better prepare children for present day challenges.

International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) regional director Nora Murat said the subject should go beyond basic reproductive health studies, to also incorporate gender perspective issues, for instance, violence against women. 

"Every day we read about cases involving young girls ... baby dumping, domestic violence and many others," Nora told theSun

 

When contacted, Women's Development Research Centre director Prof Dr Rashidah Shuib said the government must take the lead in ensuring that children are taught the right information.

"It is much better for information to be given in a proper manner, rather than children finding out from other sources, like the internet," she said.

She said as children are less inclined to talk to their parents about "intimate" matters, introducing sex education in schools will be a good solution to the problem. 

Social activist Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir said there is a lack of political will to heed repeated calls from civil society and concerned parents for sex education to be incorporated into the school system. 

"Actually, what I would like to see is gender equality education. If sex education (only) perpetuates the idea that women are less equal, are inferior (to men), it does not help," she said. 

Asked whether sex education should be introduced as a dedicated module or incorporated into existing subjects, Marina said it must first begin with a policy approach that applies across the board.

These comments reflect a renewed public interest in cases highlighting possible consequences of entering into an unplanned sexual relationship, or of young couples unable to cope with the pressures of married life. 

The government was also urged to take the lead in introducing sex education in schools, rather than leave it to NGOs such as the Yayasan Guru Malaysia Berhad and Putrajaya Consultative Council of Parent-Teacher Association, responsible for organising a series of "Parents Handling LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transsexual) Issues" seminars. 

A purported "guideline' for parents to identify LGBT traits in their children, distributed during the seminar, attracted brickbats and bouquets from concerned parties, including parents, rights groups and educationists. 

In response, Deputy Education Minister Puad Zarkashi told theSun the government has no plans to introduce sex education as a dedicated module in school, but rather, it will remain incorporated in other core subjects such as science, biology and moral studies.

Blue print for sex education

My son Atharva is 13. Last year, he asked me why his female cousins and the girls from our neighbourhood didn’t play with him any more. I was stumped. Here I was, this evolved parent who thought talking about the birds and bees was the most natural thing. And yet, strangely, I got queasy about his question,” says filmmaker Ravi Jadhav, who’s made acclaimed films like Natrang and Bal Gandharva. It was Atharva’s innocuous question that led him to make Balak Palak, a film on the need for sex education and the opening up of dialogue between parents and children.

Jadhav, who grew up in a middle class milieu, says he was about his son’s age when he first got curious. “The city was plastered with posters of a wet Mandakini in Ram Teri Ganga Maili. Sagar was released soon after and I remember being gripped by the song ‘Jaane do na’. Then came Tarzan starring Hemant Birje and Kimi Katkar, and though he was a children’s character, our parents astutely kept us away from the movie. I had questions about the way I felt, but all I could do was ask a senior about it. He encouraged us to read street-side porn, and catch BPs or ‘blue prints’ (which we called Bhakta Prahlad).”

When his son asked him why the girls didn’t play with him anymore, Jadhav realised how little had changed since he was an adolescent. “Soon after, I chanced upon a Time magazine article on the rising problem of teenage pregnancy in the West,” he says. He was en route to Pune with writers Ganesh Pandit and Amber Vinod Hadap when they told him about their 20-minute one-act play on sex education, called ‘BP’. “I told them I wanted to make a film on the subject, and after some convincing, they agreed.”

Jadhav has handled large canvases in both his earlier films. Yet, he feels Balak Palak was tougher. “I didn’t want to hold back on what I wanted to say, yet I felt that both children and parents should be able to watch the film together comfortably. I’ve always used humour in my ad films, but for this, if I wasn’t careful, there was the danger that it could become vulgar or ribald. Right from the writing stage to the shoot and edit, this is what made the process longer than usual and I spent one year on the film.”

The film was screened at the Marathi International Film & Theatre Awards in Singapore last week. Film critic Amit Bhandari says he was amazed at the 1,400-plus audience’s response. “With Natrang, Jadhav re-visited the long forgotten tamasha movie genre; with Bal Gandharva, he took on a larger-than-life personality and humanised him; and now, with BP, he has again pushed the envelope,” says Bhandari.
Before its release in theatres, Balak Palak will travel to New York for the South Asian Film Festival and then be screened at MAMI festival in Mumbai on October 20.

Abstinence education gets an 'A' from parents

Melvella Bryant was delighted when her 12-year-old daughter said she wanted to wait until marriage to have sex. But Bryant is concerned the seventh-grader may hear a different message at her public school.

“I want my daughter’s school to reinforce, not contradict, what I’m teaching at home,” says Bryant, of Yonkers, N.Y. “I want her school to support her decision to wait until marriage.”

Bryant’s view is hardly unique among parents, according to a recent national survey.

The survey shows that 79 percent of parents with children ages 9 to 16 want them to receive abstinence education. Support among African-Americans parents, like Bryant, is even higher, with 86 percent supporting abstinence education for their child.

“This survey’s findings shows abstinence education is a women’s issue, a Hispanic issue, an African-American issue, a health issue and a common-sense issue with strong support across ethnic groups, age demographics and political affiliation,” says Valerie Huber, president of the National Abstinence Education Foundation (NAEF), which commissioned the survey.

Other findings include:

* Nearly eight of 10 Democrats and nine of 10 Republicans support abstinence education.

* Almost 60 percent of Democrats and more than 70 percent of Republicans oppose the idea of eliminating all funding for abstinence education.

* Democrats and Republicans alike support more equality in funding between abstinence education and comprehensive sex education.

* Eighty-five percent of parents believe that all youth, including homosexual youth, benefit from skills that help them choose to wait for sex.

Now a parent with a 14-year-old son, Katrina Hobbs of Conway, Ark., recalls how she didn’t hear a positive message about abstinence in her home or at her school.

“I never heard the beauty of why you should wait,” says Hobbs. “I really wish I had heard that message so I could have had all of the information I needed to make a good decision. I want that for my son.”

The survey shows nearly nine in 10 parents strongly support their children knowing the limitations of condoms for preventing pregnancy and disease. Hobbs wants her son to have those facts as well.

“You can’t help but see the truth in abstinence,” says Hobbs. “It’s self-evident that if you are abstaining until marriage, there is zero chance of pregnancy. It’s self evident that if you are abstaining there is zero chance of sexually transmitted diseases and zero chance of emotional scars that come with all those broken sexual relationships.”

While other surveys have addressed opinions on sex education in general with a question or two about abstinence education, this is the most extensive poll focusing specifically on abstinence education's approach and themes.

Conducted by Pulse Opinion Research in mid-September, the survey asked 23 questions of 1,683 parents across the country with children ages 9-16. The survey’s margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

A full survey report and an opportunity to sign an open letter to Congress that asks for increased abstinence education funding can be found at www.whattheytoldus.org, a website that reports polling data about abstinence education.

Sex education 'lacking' in schools

Near one third of Irish people have not recieved any form of sex education at school.

Nearly a third of Irish people have not received any form of sexual health education in secondary school, a new survey has revealed.

The global average of those who did not receive sexual health education in school stands at 22 per cent, but in Ireland that figure rises to 30 per cent, according to the Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey.

The survey of 29,994 adults in 36 countries was carried out as part of National Condom Week by Harris Interactive.

It shows that 55 per cent of 18-year-olds will leave Irish secondary level with some formal sexual health education but an additional 15 per cent of people said they cannot remember their school's attempt at sex education.

Nearly half of all survey participants said their friends are a major source of sexual education, with books, magazines and mainstream television all ranking more informative than school.

The survey also revealed the average number of sexual partners for men was 17 while the women surveyed said they had eight different partners on average.

National Condom week, which kicks off today and concludes on October 21st, aims to promote safe and well-informed sex, according to brand manager for Durex Ireland Hazel Roche.

“National Condom Week gives us the chance to ensure safer sex is at the forefront of everyone's minds. By partnering with the [Dublin Aids Alliance] and [Union of Students in Ireland] we want to raise the awareness of the value of good sexual health education, and the importance of safer sex,” she said.

“It is vital that we educate our nation because a condom can quite literally be a lifesaver.”

Throughout the week, over 30,000 condoms and information cards will be handed out by the Dublin Aids Alliance.

“This is our ninth year supporting Durex with National Condom Week and we did not hesitate to commit our time and energy again,” DAA’s coordinator for prevention education and training Susan Donlon said.

“We are thrilled that this year Durex has supplied us with 30,000 condoms to distribute to communities throughout Ireland, including young people and at risk groups.”