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Utah's teen pregnancy rates low, while sex education more open than you might think By
Brook Cox
Brad Nelson, a health teacher at Logan High School, remembers when he was in high school during the '70s and how educators taught him sexual education. It was different. They would divide the girls from the boys, Nelson said. Some sexually transmitted diseases and some birth control methods were mentioned, but they never talked about male and female reproductive systems, Nelson said. "I generally believe information is a good thing. Trying to shield the facts from kids is not good," Brent Miller, USU's family and human development department head, said. Compared to other states, surprisingly, Utah shields fewer facts than many, E. H. Berry, USU sociology professor, said. For example, Berry said, Arizona's education board doesn't require sex education in the state's public schools. If a school does decide to teach it, they can only teach abstinence. California's board of education doesn't require sex education either. If a school does decide to teach it, it must teach abstinence and contraception. In Utah, sex education is a component of mandatory health education, Berry said. Utah schools must teach abstinence and STDs, and with parental permission they can talk about contraceptives. This could by why Utah's teen pregnancy rates are third lowest in the country, but Douglas Beach, assistant principal at Logan High School and former health teacher at Mountain Crest High School, said that Utah's rates could be low because of its less restrictive sex education programs, but more likely it's because of the dominant cultural values of the LDS church and Western conservatism. Out of 1,000 pregnancies in Utah, 60 are of teen-age girls, aged 15 to 19. The state with the highest teen pregnancy rate is Nevada at 140. The lowest teen pregnancy rate is found in North Dakota, whose rate is 50 teen pregnancies out of every 1,000 pregnancies, according to The Alan Guttmacher Institute study in April 1999, www.agi-usa.org/pubs/teen_preg_stats.html. The teen birth rate for Cache County states that for every 1,000 births, 35.08 are to teen mothers, according to Utah Department of Health web page, www.health.state.ut.us. According to National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 58 percent of teen births in Utah are to unmarried teens. "Nearly all teens know that unprotected sexual intercourse can lead to pregnancy or STDs, and most know that condoms can be obtained at stores and provide protection against pregnancy and STDs," according to a summary of "No Easy Answers," a study on how to reduce teen pregnancy by Douglas Kirby, Ph.D. "It's almost as if adults are afraid to talk about it for fear they will put the idea in our head. Well. guess what . . . we are already thinking about it and we need as much guidance and advice as possible," a teen-age girl said in a SmartGirl.com survey in May 1999, titled The Truth About Teen Girls and Sex. So if kids already know the basics, Kirby asks, Does additional sexual education affect teen-agers sexual or contraceptive behaviors in a positive or negative way? After looking at abstinence-only programs, programs that look at abstinence, methods of contraception and AIDS/HIV education, programs that improved teens' access to contraceptives, and programs that were designed for interaction between parents and children, Kirby concluded that there is no easy answers as to what is most effective in preventing teen pregnancies. For example, Kirby said abstinence-only programs have not been proven to delay intercourse and programs that talk about sexuality and HIV and make condoms more available do not increase sexual activity. Kirby suggests that parents and schools should implement programs that have the greatest evidence of success, give teen-agers the risk factors that will encourage them to avoid pregnancy, and continually look for better approaches to sexual education. As far as Utah's sexual education is concerned, Beach feels that it is important to stay consistent with the value system of the community. Amid lessons on substance abuse, disease prevention and nutrition and fitness in Utah's health curriculum, lies the topic of human development and relationships. In Logan High's health class, Nelson begins by talking about how to deal with relationships, using self control and having respect for others. Then comes the lessons in male and female anatomy, along with the care and disorders of each. Nelson goes on to teach about teen pregnancy, STDs, AIDS and conception. When teaching about contraceptives, Nelson emphasizes that nothing is 100 percent effective, except abstinence. "I don't go through individual methods," Nelson said. Instead Nelson encourages students to be responsible with contraceptive methods. According to Utah law, "Prior written parental consent must be obtained before including any aspect of contraception in the curriculum." The statute goes on to say, "A strong abstinence message has always been and will continue to be an expected part of the Utah State Secondary Health Core Curriculum. May we all resolve to accept responsibility for teaching teen that sexual abstinence before marriage is culturally and morally expected." In order to teach the benefits of abstinence, Nelson has the students make a chart. On one side of the chart, students list disadvantages of being sexually active. On the other side they list benefits of being abstinent. On the benefits of abstinence side, students come up with phrases such as, no emotional scarring, no physical scarring, no unwanted pregnancy and stronger relationships, Nelson said. To those teens that have already engaged in sexual activity, the Utah State Board of Education states that school programs should encourage them to stop engaging in sexual intercourse until they are married. Nelson also encourages them to see a physician. Along with what should be taught, the State Board has also stated what should not be taught. Teaching the "intricacies of intercourse, sexual stimulation, erotic behavior" is not allowed. Teaching the "acceptance or advocacy of homosexuality as a desirable or healthy sexual adjustment of lifestyle" is not allowed and teaching the "advocacy or encouragement of the use of contraceptive methods or devices by unmarried minors" is not allowed. What is being taught in sex education courses seems to be a hot topic for the parents of Utah teen-agers. During the 2000 legislative session, a bill that would have required educators to teach abstinence-only programs made it through the House and Senate before Gov. Mike Leavitt vetoed it, because he said it fell short of the ideals, according to an article in the Herald Journal. Miller is glad that Leavitt didn't sign the bill, because he feels placing greater restrictions is not the solution. "It [sex education] is very limited. There's an attitude of not willing to be open. It's fine to believe that parents should teach their kids, but school has a responsibility too," Miller said. In reading, writing, and arithmetic, parents support us [teachers], and in sex education the teachers should support what the parents teach in the home, Nelson said. In six years of teaching sex education, Beach only had two kids whose parents didn't want their children being taught sex education, and Nelson has had one student not attend his sex education class. Nelson and Beach have kept parents informed through giving out their phone numbers and giving parents outlines of the days' lessons. Beach held a parent night before he started the sex education unit every year. At the parents' night Beach would address the parents concerns and from hearing parents concerns he decided to edit the movie, The Miracle of Life, before showing it to his classes. Despite Kirby's findings that teenagers have already heard most of what is taught in abstinence-only programs, Nelson feels that sex education in the schools teaches some things that could have been missed at home and it helps open up the dialogue about sex between parents and teen-agers. When he teaches the sex education unit in his health class, Nelson also wants to dispel the myths about sex and all related topics. Kids hear untrue things in the hallways and from their friends about sex. A lot of what they hear they don't feel comfortable talking to their parents about, so Nelson has a question box by the door of his classroom, where students can write questions on 3 x 5 cards and put them into the box as they leave class each day. At the end of the unit, Nelson devotes two or three days to answering the questions on the cards. From the questions on the cards, Nelson can tell that some students need clarification on many of the myths that they have heard from their friends. For example, one student wrote, "If you have sexual contact with an infected person of genital warts, but you use a condom, can you still be infected?" Another student wrote, "What are the emotional effects of being sexually active?" Myths about how to prevent pregnancy are prevalent according to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, www.teenpregnancy.org. They found some teens believe that douching with cola or vinegar after sex, jumping up and down after sex and even pushing on their belly buttons after sex, will prevent pregnancy. A teen mother said in a response to an online weekly teen survey done by NCPTP, "What troubles me is when another girl finds out that I have a daughter and she says "that is so neat." A car is neat, an outfit is neat, a baby is not. They take a lot of time and work. When you become a mom, you become responsible (physically, emotionally, and financially) for a child for the rest of your life. There are no weekends or summer vacations, the child will always be there. And no matter how good your relationship was before you became pregnant, the father will most likely have gone on his merry way. If I had been better informed, I would have never had sex in the first place, let alone a child." Nelson is teaching sex education different from the way he was taught. He feels he is teaching students only what they need to know. "I enjoy it and there's nothing to hide," Nelson said.
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