Editorial: Sex Ed for Youths is an Urgent Need
by James M. Stewart ¦ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online ¦ 29 February 2008 While the incidence of teen pregnancy is on the decline in Wisconsin and across the nation, Milwaukee's rank as seventh among the nation's largest cities in teen births and third in African-American teen births is a cause for deep concern. This, coupled with the fact that one in three school-aged children in Milwaukee is living in poverty, offers compelling evidence that we need to do all we can to keep youths in school to give them hope for a better future. At Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, we work every day with young people and their families who want a better future. In 2007, we provided sexuality education to nearly 14,000 youths and basic health care services such as annual exams and birth control to 15,000 patients under age 19. The Journal Sentinel's Feb. 24 editorial "Imagine this is your daughter" rightly emphasized the important role that Milwaukee Public Schools can play in addressing the problem of teen pregnancy. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin believes that the Milwaukee community - especially parents - must insist that our schools teach age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education. This means sex education that is abstinence-based and includes accurate information about birth control. Our young people need this dual approach so they can make responsible choices on how to protect themselves. Unfortunately for our children, the provision of comprehensive sex education is not a legal requirement, and, consequently, too many of our youths go through school without receiving any formal sex education. MPS has made a good beginning in adopting the Making Proud Choices curriculum, but many more teachers need training on it - and will need ongoing training - and many more schools need to step up their commitment to the program. Most parents want their children to receive age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education. Surveys show that more than 80% of people support youths receiving comprehensive sex education in the classroom. We must stop ignoring the wishes of most parents and start teaching comprehensive sex education. The need is urgent. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction recently released the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which indicates that the percentage of Wisconsin ninth- through 12th-graders who reported having sex within the past three months is on the rise again. Concurrently, the number of those students using condoms is declining. With leadership from our city government and United Way of Greater Milwaukee, our community is taking steps toward helping prevent teen pregnancy. But the data is telling us we must do much more. What better next step can there be than to implement comprehensive sex education programming - consistently and in all our schools? We owe this much to our children.
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