The birds, the bees and the ABC’s
It went through four committee hearings and much floor debate before the North Carolina House recently passed the legislation, and it now heads to the Senate, where it faces more opposition.
Among the changes the bill saw as it slogged through committee was a matter of implementation: state lawmakers decided that parents should be allowed to choose whether their child was sent through a “comprehensive” sex-ed track or the “abstinence-based” track that the state has used in recent years.
And then there arose an argument over which of the two would be the default curriculum track if the parent had no preference. (No preference?) Legislators seem inclined to add a third, no-sex-ed track as well.
Read an opinion piece here, from Paige Johnson at NC Policy Watch.
Then, last week, the New York Times ran a story about the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina, based in Durham, which has begun the innovative “Birds and the Bees Text Line”, which allows teenagers to text questions about sex to the center from their cell phones, and within 24 hours “receive a cautious, nonjudgmental reply, texted directly to their cellphones, from a nameless, faceless adult.”
Here is an excerpt:
Sex education in the classroom, say many epidemiologists and public health experts, is often ineffective or just insufficient. In many areas of the country, rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases remain constant or are even rising. North Carolina – where schools must teach an abstinence-only curriculum – has the country’s ninth-highest teenage pregnancy rate. Since 2003, when the state’s pregnancy rate declined to a low of 61 per 1,000 girls ages 15 to 19, the rates have slowly been climbing. In 2007, that rate rose to 63 per 1,000 girls – 19,615 pregnancies.
Another:
Modeling their service on a similar city program in Alexandria, Va., the North Carolina staff members worked up guidelines: No medical advice – urge questioners to speak with a doctor. Do not advocate abortion. When necessary, refer questioners to local clinics, Web sites or emergency hot lines. Give reasoned, kind advice. Read answers twice before sending. No sarcasm.
Nancy Liddle, of Sylva, thinks the program is worth a shot.
“After living wth a teenager, who, despite my numerous attempts to be open and willing to talk about anything, still won’t ask me anything at all, I can see the beauty of this service,” she says. “Also, she and her friends are absolutely attached to their phones and texting is just how it goes. No talking is ever done. Ever. I’m worried she might throw her thumbs out one day soon.”
There are gaps in the program, Liddle emphasizes, especially for those who might already be in trouble, but for the average kid with a phone in attached to them, she thinks its great for getting nonjudgemental info, quickly and on thier terms.
Tags: adolescent, cellphones, Education, Health, NC Policy Watch, New York Times, North Carolina, sex ed, sex education, teenage pregnancy rate
Related posts:
The story out there is that teens in Jackson Co and NC are only taught abstinence… not true. The teens at Smokey Mountain are taught all forms of birth control along with instructions on how to put a condom on ones partner. This was the course even back 6 and 7 years ago when I was a student there at the time.
I suggest MS Liddle removes the phone from her daughter’s possession. That is part of parenting.