Need for Sex Classes Shows in Birthrates

Since the late 1960s, when an emotional furor forced the Anaheim Union High School District to drop its nationally recognized sex education program, the subject has been so controversial that some school boards have foolishly refused to offer it as part of the curriculum.

Anaheim still does not have a formal family life or sex education program. Neither does the Santa Ana Unified School District, the largest school district in the county. It cannot be pure coincidence that high schools in Anaheim and Santa Ana have much higher teen-age birthrates than those in any other district in the county.

Santa Ana, which historically has refused to offer sex education classes, also historically has had the highest ratio of teen-age pregnancies. The district is recording 114.8 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19--by far the highest rate in the county.

Contrary to the myth perpetuated by some opponents of school sex education programs that they lead to promiscuity and pregnancy, studies show just the opposite: Young people enrolled in sex education classes have fewer pregnancies and become sexually active later than students who do not have the advantage of such classes.

That reality may finally be getting through to Santa Ana district trustees. On a 4-1 vote Tuesday, trustees accepted a recommendation from a special committee and ordered staff members to develop a curriculum in family life and sex education, including information about AIDS, to be taught in kindergarten through high school. A final decision is scheduled for January, when trustees will review the teaching plans that are developed. A program should be adopted then.

School trustees cannot continue to shun sex education classes if they are truly concerned about the welfare of the students and the community.

Teen-age pregnancies and childbirth are among the major causes of students’ leaving school. Most pregnant teen-agers do not graduate from high school, and about 30% of teen-age fathers drop out too. In addition to the physical and emotional upheaval involved in those pregnancies, the failure to complete an education often dooms these students to lifetimes of lower wages, unemployment and frustrating problems for them and the community.

Teen-agers will learn about sex. The important things are what they learn and where they learn it. Ideally, sex education should be taught at home. But too many parents, for reasons of embarrassment or lack of knowledge, never bring the subject up. Young people are most often left to learn about sex from their peers. And too often by trial and error.

The failure of parents and educators is obvious in the most recent statistics. In 1986 there were 286 teen births in the Santa Ana District. Anaheim had 228. The Garden Grove Unified District had 107. The Laguna Beach Unified District, which has a comprehensive sex education program, had 2.

Santa Ana and Anaheim should adopt the formal sex education and family life programs that have proven themselves so valuable elsewhere before more innocent young men and women pay the price of ignorance--theirs and the school boards.