In MPS, about 63% of high school students - and more than a quarter of middle school students - are having sex, according to the latest data on youth sexual behavior collected by the district.
Kathleen Murphy, MPS health services coordinator, said sexually transmitted infections such as chlamydia, gonorrhea and, increasingly, HIV are afflicting high numbers of teenagers and young women.
Despite that, condom use among young people is on the decline, according to Murphy. Free or reduced-price contraception is available at many health clinics and other sites around the city, but Murphy said many students may not seek out those avenues because of inconvenience, embarrassment or cost.
In MPS, the condoms would be available only in high schools that have registered nurses, and the students would have to talk to a nurse before receiving a free condom.
My Juvenile Justice class discussed this on Monday, and it surprised me how many people were not only against the distribution of condoms but were offended by it. Arguments against the plan revolved around religion, abstinence, the proper role of schools in sex education, and the thought that schools would be promoting sex by giving students condoms. The JS actually does a pretty good job in answering these criticisms -
According to data the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a few months ago, Murphy said, the United States has the highest rate of sexually transmitted infection of any developed country, and African-American females 15 through 19 have the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea.
Another recent CDC survey reported that one in four teen girls has had a sexually transmitted disease.
On the survey, which was administered to middle- and high-school students last spring, 63.1% of high schoolers reported having had sexual intercourse. When the survey was administered in 2003, just under 60% of students reported having had sex.
Reported condom usage among sexually active teenagers has changed significantly from 2003 to 2009, however. In 2003, 70.5% of sexually active students reported using a condom. In 2009, only 66.2% of high schoolers having sex said they were using a condom....
"We want our students to be abstinent," said Brett Fuller, a health curriculum specialist for MPS. "But when they make the choice (to have sex), they need to have the tools and understanding on how to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections and to prevent unwanted pregnancies. That's why we have a comprehensive sex education program."...
"Most of the research that has been done in sexuality education has shown that it does increase the use of contraception, but not the rate of being sexually active," Wooley said.
It'll be interesting to see how this goes forward as abstinence education seems to have not done much to prevent kids from having sex. A story today in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune highlights a new study that shows that casual sex is not emotionally harmful for young adults. The study focused on 18-24 yr olds, but the take-away is important for educating any young person who could be sexually active -
"Casual sex is not for everyone" as an emotional matter, she said. Moreover, there is real physical risk: Rates of sexually transmitted diseases are rising relentlessly, and teen pregnancy rates in Minnesota are on the increase as well.
But, she said, sex education curriculums, parents and public health programs should "focus on the things that are real threats," such as interpersonal violence, pregnancy risk and STDs, not on the theory that casual sex is emotionally harmful.
Someone in class said one of the people involved in the MPS committee hearing compared the distribution of condoms to umbrellas in that buying an umbrella does not cause it to rain. I can also add, from personal experience, that getting condoms does not necessarily lead to having any sex.
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