Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant and die ' this may be an exaggerated line from Mean Girls, but many high schools approach sex education this way, while others are more comprehensive.
The main two types of sex education taught in the United States are comprehensive sex education, which teaches abstinence and contraceptive use as a positive choice, and abstinence-only sex education.
Abstinence is still a big part of the comprehensive approach, but it teaches sexual maturity and the delay of sexual experiences, said Char Kopchick, director of health promotion at Ohio University.
It's the school's responsibility to provide correct information
Kopchick said, adding that it is up to the students to use the information to make their decisions.
OU freshman Meghan Nichols learned about sex education while attending Trimble High School in Glouster. The classes promoted abstinence, but she was taught how to use condoms and take birth control.
It let me know how to be careful and if an accident did happen I would know what to do and where to go
Nichols said.
But Bethany Zimmerman, also an OU freshman, was forced to turn to her mother for any sex health questions because Logan High School did not provide classes.
They never told us anything
she said.
In Athens County, 132 girls ages 10 to 19 were pregnant in 2006, according to the Ohio Department of Health, which accounts for 0.5 percent of teen pregnancies in Ohio.
Superintendent Carl Martin said Athens City Schools educate their students on sex and making healthy lifestyle decisions.
I would hope they take away the knowledge and the ability to find more information on various topics that affect their long-term health and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle and the personal responsibility of their actions
Martin said. As a school district
we do not teach abstinence only.
Each year, about 750,000 to 850,000 teenage women become pregnant in the United States ' 74 to 95 percent of which are unintended ' and teenagers contract 4 million of the 15 million cases of sexually transmitted infections each year, according to Advocates for Youth, a group working to help teenagers make informed and responsible sexual health decisions. -
he said.
Although comprehensive sex education promotes abstinence, abstinence-only education is the best choice, said Dinky Hicks, vice president of marketing and special projects for NIMCO, a company that sponsors educational programs, and maintains an abstinence-only education Web site. -
but a lot of people choose not to marry. Ideally
is that the right thing? There is no doubt in my mind
but let's get real
