THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607100565
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: SEX EDUCATION
HOW IS IT WORKING?
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 141 lines
When it comes to sex education, North Carolina lawmakers don't play around.
Last year the Tarheel State become one of the first in the country to require public schools to teach children that abstinence until marriage is the way to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
Instruction beyond that mandate, such as the use of contraceptives, can still be taught in public schools, but only if communities call for it.
``My own personal opinion is that what we've been doing for a number of years in teaching sex education is wrong. It sends a very bad, mixed message to young people,'' said Rep. Robin Hayes, the Republican candidate for governor.
Hayes introduced the legislation that was approved last summer.
``What schools have basically been saying is, `We know you will not remain abstinent, so we're going to give you information and contraceptive devices that will keep you safe.' ''
``It's a bad message because young people can and will remain abstinent until marriage,'' Hayes said. This summer, in cities and counties across the state, local school boards will hold public hearings to determine the parameters of their districts' sex education.
Some most likely will decide on a more comprehensive program that includes ``safe sex'' measures, while others will focus entirely on teaching children to ``just say no.''
``I think many, many educators and many, many parents across the state feel that there is a need to have an abstinence focus and, at the same time, allow local school districts the flexibility to make decisions that affect their students,'' said Artie Kamiya, a former physical education teacher who now oversees the state's art and health education curricula.
``There's a sweeping - in my opinion - conservative, pro-family and family values constituency building across the country,'' Kamiya said.
Results of a statewide poll of 829 registered voters taken in April, however, indicate that 65 percent of North Carolina voters favored educating students on facts about condoms to help protect kids against sexually transmitted diseases.
The poll was commissioned by the American Social Health Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to stopping sexually transmitted diseases.
Other states across the country, particularly those that have seen a conservative shift in their governing bodies, also are adopting abstinence-only policies.
But North Carolina has gone a step beyond that - the state is requiring schools to emphasize that students should save themselves for marriage.
``It would be great if our parents took care of that type of education, but they're not doing that,'' Hayes said.
Under the new guidelines, school systems that go beyond abstinence until marriage and discuss contraceptives must also include the failure rates of various birth-control methods.
Students also must be informed that homosexual acts are illegal and can have fatal consequences, including the transmission of the virus that causes AIDS.
The guidelines also state that condoms cannot be distributed in schools. Only one school system - Chapel Hill - had been giving them out, said Ann McColl, legal counsel for the North Carolina School Boards Association in Raleigh.
North Carolina's new sex-education policy has been widely attacked by national groups such as the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League in Washington, D.C.
``Our children's health and safety is being offered up at the altar of right-wing zealotry,'' NARAL President Kate Michelman said shortly after the guidelines were passed by the General Assembly. Opponents say the new law is naive and could create more cases of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases by cutting off information to sexually active students.
``My feeling is, it may make things worse,'' said Dorothy ``Dee'' Talley, a school nurse at Currituck County High School in Barco.
``I do believe that these people have good intentions, but I don't think a lot of them are in the trenches working with kids the way we do.''
Gerri Ashe, a recent graduate of Hertford County High School in Ahoskie, believes that more emphasis on abstinence might help reduce peer pressure to have sex.
``But I think the consequences should also be taught, such as how you can get diseases, because a lot of teens don't know - or think - they can get diseases,'' Ashe said.
North Carolina has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country, with 106 pregnancies for every 1,000 girls in 1994, according to the North Carolina Center for Health and Environmental Studies.
``By the time kids who stay in school graduate, 75 percent of them will have had sexual intercourse,'' said Bob Frye, a health education consultant with the state's Department of Public Instruction in Raleigh.
Health educators historically have made postponing sexual involvement the emphasis of instruction. But many also have included information for those already in sexual relationships.
Even proponents of the new sex education policy admit that there's no proof that teaching abstinence until marriage reduces the teenage pregnancy rate or the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
North Carolina's program, which emphasizes abstinence until marriage, is so new that educators are having trouble finding adequate teaching materials.
Most such materials are available through commercial sex-education programs, but questions have been raised about their accuracy. For example, one recommended book advises sexually active boys and girls wash their genitals with Lysol to avoid diseases. The disinfectant company asked to have its name removed from the text.
And while limiting sex to within marriage may be one of the best methods of reducing sexually transmitted disease, it isn't fail-safe, as some authors suggest.
``Factually, that's not accurate. The best way to avoid it is to be chaste forever, right?'' McColl said.
The new law also requires a public hearing in areas where school systems go beyond teaching abstinence until marriage. A 60-day period for parental review of all sex-ed materials also is required.
That's good news to parents like Mary Jo Westbrook of Elizabeth City, who has challenged sex-education materials within the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank school system.
Westbrook, 43, was upset with certain videos being used last year at her son's high school. The videos, she said, emphasized condom use and safer sex, with very little mention of abstinence.
One video in particular, ``Time Out,'' treated the subject with humor and was hosted by comedian Arsenio Hall, who admits to casual sex, and Magic Johnson, who has HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
``They need to be done matter-of-factly so kids know it's serious, not funny. If they're going to use things like this, parents should know,'' said Westbrook, who is a born-again Christian.
Since her younger son began receiving sex education in elementary school, Westbrook has carefully reviewed the curriculum and sometimes has kept him out of programs she felt were inappropriate.
If parents don't approve of their school system's program, they can choose to have their children ``opt out,'' according to the new guidelines.
Rising sophomore Eric Nickens, 15, said he agrees with his elected officials that schools should emphasize abstinence until marriage.
``Teachers don't want to touch that subject now. They are scared to get anywhere near it,'' the Gates County High School student said. ``With a state mandate, maybe we will all learn something and, hopefully, that something will be to abstain from having sex before marriage.''
Frye, of the state education department, said, ``I think it will be interesting to see how schools respond, and how communities determine what it is they want their children to be taught.
``I certainly hope it's effective, because we're talking about matters of life and death here,'' he said. ``This isn't something where you want people to fool around.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
THE LAWS
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KEYWORDS: SEX EDUCATION by CNB