Student: Sex ed isn’t to blame for more activity

While parents, school board members and school district officials hold the key to changing sexual education in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, it is the students who will be affected most and some of them are saying it’s time for something new.

“People need to know what they are getting themselves into,” said Valentino Rodriguez, 17, a student at Costa Mesa High School. “[Comprehensive sex education] teaches awareness about sex. But there is a lot more to it than just sex.”

Sex education is on everyone’s minds in the Newport-Mesa district these days after Planned Parenthood recently gave the district a flunking grade. Newport-Mesa school officials say they plan to reevaluate the district’s sex education program, but not in response to the Planned Parenthood report, which they say wasn’t relevant to its curriculum.

Rodriguez recently transferred from Capistrano Unified School District, another district Planned Parenthood flunked. Capistrano didn’t fare much better than Newport-Mesa, scoring a 60.5 out of 100 versus Newport-Mesa’s 59.3.

The scores aren’t reflective of the sexual education programs at these districts, but instead are ratings of the textbooks used in their health programs, which include education on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted disease prevention because the districts don’t teach comprehensive sex education, Planned Parenthood officials said.

School districts aren’t required to teach comprehensive sex education, but they are required to at least teach about HIV/AIDS and STD prevention.

If a district does choose to teach sex education, it then must include abstinence education, instruction on STDs, including transmission, treatment and prevention, and information about the effectiveness of all Food and Drug Administration approved methods of reducing the risk of contracting STDs, the effectiveness and safety of all FDA approved contraceptive forms, and California law regarding adoption.

“Our goal with this study was to provide information to parents,” said Jon Dunn, president and chief executive for Planned Parenthood in Orange County. “We really view this as a public health issue. Our goal was not to politicize this, not to criticize school districts.”

The purpose of the survey was to begin a dialogue about sex education that Planned Parenthood believes is necessary for school districts to commit to, Dunn said. Sex education is optional for students when offered by a school and parents make the ultimate decision, but Dunn said it is important to offer the resource for those who want it.

“In this environment, when we know that teen pregnancy rates are on the rise ... it would seem in the best interest to provide information to students,” Dunn said. “We know how to solve this crisis, we can have a significant impact on pregnancy rates and STDs. By denying them this information, we are really putting them at risk.”

Some parents and officials, though, have moral concerns related to sex education and many believe it is a topic best discussed at home.

Rodriguez disagrees.

“Parents give you a limited knowledge,” he said. “Schools give you a curriculum with really valuable information.”

Past studies have shown the majority of parents tend to side with Rodriguez. A statewide study by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2003 showed that in 70% of schools, 1% or less of parents chose to remove their children from the program. A statewide study in 2006 from the Center for Research on Adolescent Health and Development at Public Health Institute in Oakland showed 89% of parents support some kind of comprehensive sex education.

School board member Dana Black hopes new state standards released recently will include more sexual education for the school district. She said an advisory meeting is planned later this month to go over the standards members will later discuss.

“The thing we hear when children are in trouble, the thing I see as the common denominator is ignorance or poor decision making,” Black said. “When I get all the facts, I make better decisions. We owe that to our children.”

Black said some children learn about sexual health by word-of-mouth, and some of them after it’s too late. For Black, there needs to be more honesty in the conversation about sex with students. Part of that conversation should be about abstinence, but there should be more about the consequences of sex and what else is out there, she said.

“Everyone needs to know what’s going on,” said Brianne Mead, 18, a Costa Mesa High School student.

Both Mead and Rodriguez rejected the claim that sex education would promote sexual activity. Rodriguez compared it to classes and programs that teach about drugs, arguing that people don’t blame those programs for creating drug users.

In fact, Rodriguez said the lack of sex education may promote activity, which both he and Mead said is clearly evident at their school.

“[Without education] they try the market for themselves,” Rodriguez said.

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at [email protected].