Emotions are mixed about abstinence-only education among parents and students who have received sexual education at local schools.
Marilyn Maher, a sophomore at Alexander Local School District, said she first was taught sexual education beginning in sixth-grade. Maher said she felt the material was useful -particularly the material taught during her freshman-year health class.
I think I learned some stuff ... last year. It was a long unit
so I learned a lot of stuff that was useful about everything she said.
Maher's mother Linda said she also thought the sexual education at Alexander was effective. I thought it was pretty useful Linda said. There's still some things that you need to talk about at home ... about commitment and caring for somebody.
Reflecting on her sexual education at Alexander High School, 16-year-old Natalie Schell did not have many positive things to say.
I think it's pretty vague. They don't tell us very much
Schell said. All they do is talk about abstinence. I don't think they do a very good job.
Schell, who took a semester-long health class during her sophomore year, said too much time was spent on abstinence education, which she said was an ineffective way to talk about sex.
They say (abstinence is) the best way to prevent pregnancy and getting emotionally hurt
Schell said. Basically
they're trying to get us not to have sex.
With three girls pregnant in her school, Schell said the abstinence education obviously doesn't work.
Meta Vannostran, an Athens/Meigs Educational Service Center supervisor, who concentrates on curriculum instruction for Alexander, Federal Hocking and Trimble schools, said sex education is taught in a much broader context -not exclusively focusing on abstinence.
In the work and family life classes
abstinence is a choice ... The hot thing is abstinence education
but when you talk about sex education in relation to personal and family life
it has a different context
she said. It's not just a physical thing. It's broader. It's in relation to all kinds of risk behaviors.
Vannostran said the schools' health classes in the schools focus on biological topics, such as STIs, while Work and Family Life classes focus on other topics, such as the appropriate time to become a parent.
But, because of funding cuts, the Work and Family Life Program is being phased out of local schools, she said. Federal Hocking dropped the program two years ago and Trimble dropped it last year.
Kim Reeves, a health teacher at Federal Hocking Middle School, said her sexual education curriculum, which focuses on abstinence and STIs, is effective in preventing students from having sex.
By the time I'm done with (the abstinence) and the (STIs)
just about all the eighth-graders tell you they don't want to have sex
