Raising the voices of teens to change sexuality education.

SIECUS Rep 28(6):20-4 (2000) PMID 12322610

In the US, birth, pregnancy, and abortion rates have remained unacceptably high despite the declines experienced over the years. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 65% of teens engage in sexual intercourse before they graduate from high school, 18% of 9th-grade students initiate intercourse before age 13, and approximately 4 million teens in the US contract a sexually transmitted disease each year. The country's response on these dismal statistics have been unsuccessful, focusing only on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that are forbidden to discuss contraception and disease-prevention strategies. In view of this, the Network for Family Life Education launched the national newsletter and Web site ¿SEX, ETC¿. The goal was to provide up-to-date, accurate, balanced, and attractive materials that would change students' sexuality attitudes and behaviors. Developed by teens for teens, such an approach can push the envelope as to the kind of programs a school should implement if educators, administrators, and school board members will pay attention. Moreover, the approach holds the potential for an extraordinary new partnership between teens and caring adults that can move relevant, responsible sexuality education forward in a powerful and meaningful way.