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Unified in sync with Doyle bill
Sex education will focus on teaching abstinence
BY MATTHEW OLSON molson@kenoshanews.com
Gov. Jim Doyle signed a bill last week that would have abstinence taught in sex education classes as the preferred behavior for unmarried people.
The Kenosha Unified School District already follows that principle, but the effectiveness of that approach has raised some questions.
The bill, signed Tuesday, would require sex education teachers to emphasize refraining from intercourse as the best way to prevent pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, but would not prevent discussion about other forms of contraception.
Scott Lindgren, Kenosha Unified Coordinator of Athletics, Activities, Health, Physical Education and Recreation, said the district’s Family Life Curriculum program is similar to those standards.
“Our Family Life Curriculum is based on abstinence as the leading form of birth control, and we talk about that in our
health classes,” he said. “It’s been a part of our curriculum since 1992.”
However, the results of sex education focusing on abstinence have raised a few questions.
Nicole Safar, public policy analyst for Planned Parenthood, agreed with the success rate of practicing abstinence, but said a more comprehensive teaching program would better serve young people.
“All people agree that abstinence is the preferred method, but this bill could have been much better,” Safar said. “There was an amendment that would have meant an equal amount of teaching of other contraception methods would have been taught.
“When teenagers are presented with abstinence and contraceptives, they are more likely to delay having sex, more likely to have fewer partners and use contraceptives. By giving them all the information, you are giving them tools they need as teens and as they go into adult life.”
Lindgren said other forms of contraception are still given attention in Unified’s program.
“It’s discussed in the classes, and the kids get the information,” he said. “We lead with abstinence, but we don’t just talk about that.”
The numbers for teen pregnancies and births have fluctuated in the county over the last few years, according to Gary Brown, executive director of Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services.
“Locally we actually saw an increase in teen births and pregnancies in 2004, after they had been dropping for a few years,” Brown said. “There may be more sexual activity and less abstinence happening here, but we’re waiting to see if that number drops back again this year.”
Cynthia Rafenstein, County Division of Health nursing director, also said 2005’s num- bers should shed some light on the effectiveness of the teachings.
“The number of teen pregnancies had dipped or stabilized over a number of years, but they just escalated recently,” Rafenstein said. “We have to evaluate what that means with the data.”
Some early 2005 numbers showed that teenage abortions were down in the county (from 24 in 2004 to 18 last year), but the rates for teen pregnancies and birth would be needed to see if that was part of a larger trend. Brown said it is still important to emphasize abstinence.
“For the vast majority of parents in the community, that’s the choice they would like their teenage children to make,” Brown said. “Are they ready to be that responsible for their own sexual behavior? I don’t think so, and that’s why it’s best to wait, and abstinence is the best choice.”
Brown said everyone is not following that advice.
“When you look at the data, it’s not the picture you see,” Brown said. “It seems that abstinence drops off as kids get older and a lot of the peer pressure stuff kicks in. There are a lot of parents who don’t want their children to be sexually active, but they are. You can’t ignore it if it’s happening, but I don’t think most parents want to encourage it.”
Brown also said the 2005 Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey also shows that delaying sex until marriage or until they were in love was important for 49 percent of females surveyed compared to 31 percent of males.
“It appears abstinence education, through schools and families, is more effective with female students,” Brown said.
Lindgren said he knows there is not total abstinence being practiced by Unified students.
“We hope that the teaching is 100 percent effective, but we know that is not the fact,” Lindgren said.
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