Now, in its third year, a comprehensive K-12 sex education program in the Cleveland Schools District seems to be producing results.
"We know we are making progress and that we still have a long way to go," says Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson.
It is called the Responsible Sexual Behavior Initiative. It is funded by grants and also the Cuyahoga County Commissioners.
With a high teenage pregnancy rate and one of the nation's highest STD rates, city and county health officials believed it was necessary to protect young people.
A survey released today show the majority of parents like the program and it is prompting discussions at home with their teenagers about sex. It appears to also be cutting down on risky behavior among teens.
Parents can opt out of the program for their children, but most do not.
Labels: Interesting, Sex, Survey
By Kathryn Jean Lopez
In a season just past that’s all about a virgin birth, the Washington Post decided to play Scrooge. Virginity pledges don’t work, an article in that paper recently proclaimed, citing a study packed with the usual hyperbole: abstinence talk is for adults living in a sexless fantasy land! When it comes to kids it’s all about sex, and those silly folks who pretend otherwise are making our kids sick and pregnant.
“Taking a pledge doesn’t seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior,” researcher Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told the Post. “But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking.”
An official from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy led the charge in what turned out to be an orgy of abstinence bashing on the Post’s part: “This study again raises the issue of why the federal government is continuing to invest in abstinence-only programs,” she fumed. These folks miss something fundamental: a virginity pledge is more than abstinence education – it’s a promise.
The National Abstinence Education Association disputed the whole premise of the study, using this obvious tack. Its executive director, Valerie Huber, remarked to me in an e-mail interview: “The author inaccurately equates the holistic breadth of an abstinence education program to the one-time event of a virginity pledge. A pledge and an abstinence program are not synonymous.”
But the problem goes beyond lumping in a simple, cut-and-dried oath with the complicated issue of abstinence education. The conundrum boils down to this: it’s not all about sex. It’s no shock to anyone who understands human nature, never mind kids, that any virginity pledge that fixates on brute carnal relations is not going to work. Repeating the mantra “Don’t do it,” even when you’ve got a teen doing the repeating, isn’t enough. How could it work? Popular culture is obsessed with sex. We can’t even manage a family dog movie (“Marley & Me”) without Jennifer Aniston taking off her clothes. And until that changes, of course, a hormone-mad teenager will be sorely tempted to join in the seemingly ubiquitous fornication, pledge or no pledge.
Does that mean we pass out condoms at school because we’re not going to change the culture anytime soon? No. It means kids need support and reasons engage in activities other than sex. Abstinence has to be about saying “yes” to something in order to work. We need to focus on the idea that kids can actually think, and should want more from a relationship than sex. We need to be open to programs that aren’t all about copulation, but about character education.
Because, as Huber and others have noted, building strong lines of parent-child communication while developing and maintaining a sturdy ethical core helps kids immensely when it comes to keeping their pants on.
Meet a child in the Best Friends program, and you’ll see what I mean. An abstinence-education program aimed at inner-city kids, Best Friends adheres to a program that’s met with resounding success. By emphasizing the wealth of activities available to today’s youth, with a special focus on fun and constructive, communal activities, Best Friends can deliver a message that sticks.
Some studies suggest that early premarital sex leads to all sorts of problems, including later divorce. But common sense suggests this as well, and programs like Best Friends teach that sort of thinking – along with a healthy dose of self-respect. Acting responsibly and waiting for a committed, loving relationship pays dividends down the line. And the more examples kids have of successful marriages, the more likely they are to put off sex until after the nuptials.
Forever ingrained in my mind is a scene from 2007’s hit film “Juno,” in which the titular teen, who has recently learned that she’s pregnant, enters an abortion clinic and is offered flavored condoms by a distant receptionist. Once the troublesome baby bump is taken care of, the assumption is, Juno will return to the activities that landed her in the situation to begin with. But this time she’ll be safe! The scene was a great example of the way we handle sex in popular culture and schools: teen sex and teen bodies are problems to be managed and then ignored. Why should teens respect themselves when we don’t respect them?
Family, religion, and yes, abstinence-education programs that focus on character development address this very problem. They treat teens as people – complicated souls who deserve fulfillment and happiness. Contrary to the common caricature, we conservatives don’t hate sex. It’s out of respect for this great gift that we want to teach a respect for it, marriage, and the individual.
'Sex sells' is something everybody knows and thus a large volume of newsprint in 2008 was dedicated to the topic. But many findings that grabbed headlines this year didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know.
Therefore, Fox News has made a list of the ridiculously obvious sex findings of 2008, which is as follows:
Attractive people probably have more sex
Researchers at the University of Durham in Britain found that men whose faces were more "masculine" and women whose faces were more "attractive" were rated as likelier to have casual sex.
Unplanned pregnancy affects her quality of life
Research in the September issue of Contraception didn't surprise many when they concluded that unintended pregnancy has adverse effects on a woman's quality of life.
Porn as sex educator
A study by the Austrian Institute for Sexual Education made a much obvious finding that more than half of Austrian male youth rely on pornography for sex information.
She's good to ride horses
Research conducted by Dr Shaheen Alanee and colleagues at the University of Minnesota found that horseback riding is not associated with female sexual dysfunction.
Methamphetamine use makes for risky sexual behaviours
While substance abuse has long been associated with risky sexual behaviours, thus it didn't come as any wonder when research in the Journal of School Health found that using methamphetamine is associated with risky sexual behaviours and adolescent pregnancy.
He said/she said
The long known gender divide on sex was again highlighted in the research in the College Student Journal, which found that men are more likely to think that oral sex is not sex, while women felt that such intimacy was very much sex. On the matter of cybersex, men did not regard it as cheating, while women did. Finally, men thought that the frequency of sex drops in a marriage, while women thought that it stays high.
It's okay to pressure her
Research by Sheffield University in England confirmed that teen boys think that it's all right to pressure girls into sex, and use alcohol for getting them into bed.
Condoms make for less pleasure
Complaints about having to use condoms was again tackled when researchers at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University found that women who used condoms, whether solo or with other hormonal methods, reported decreased sexual pleasure.
Ugh! It's Brad and Jen all over again
Ridiculous as it may seem, but an investigation conducted at Queen's University Belfast found the obvious-sexual infidelity was more upsetting for men, whereas emotional unfaithfulness was more distressful for women. Also, it was found that men think that women have sex when they're in love.
Intra... what?
A survey in the September 2008 issue of Contraception found that over 60 percent of 14 to 24-year-old females had never heard of an IUD - intrauterine device. This isn't mind-blowing given most youth do not receive education on any contraceptives.
Abstinence-only programs do not delay the onset of intercourse
In a Sexuality Research and Social Policy review of 56 studies assessing the impact of comprehensive, STD/HIV education, and abstinence-based sex education programs, it was found that most of these programs did not delay the initiation of sex.
It's all in your head
Although sexologists have long been saying that Sex is a mind-body-soul experience, with your brain being your biggest sex organ, there was a Portuguese study this year, which reported that men's concern over erection negatively correlated with sexual arousal. For women, lack of erotic thoughts and failure to control intrusive thoughts were found to impact their sexual response.
Parents want comprehensive sex education
Parents have declared since long that they want their children to get information that protects them from pregnancy, HIV, and STDs. And in the past year, a study in the Journal of Adolescent Health once again found that nine out of 10 parents want their children to be educated on both contraception and abstinence.
Labels: 2008, Interesting, Sex., Study
A secure environment for women appears to be a far cry in India. Crime against the fairer sex is steadily increasing, and less and
less number of the accused are getting convicted. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data tells this sorry tale, prevailing for the last three years.
In 2005, a whopping 1.55 lakh cases of crime against women were registered across India, but convictions were recorded in only 30,826 cases - a mere 19.8%. In 2006, case registration jumped to 1.64 lakh, but convictions declined to 28,998, or 17.5%. Continuing the trend, more than 1.85 lakh cases were registered in 2007, but the trial courts found the charge sustainable only in 27,612 cases, a meagre 14.9%.
In Delhi, where working women's security has been a concern, conviction in these cases remained lower than national average in all three years - 10.8% in 2005, 12.4% in 2006 and 13.4% in 2007.
Andhra Pradesh remained at the top of the list in terms of number of cases relating to crime against women -- 20,819 in 2005, 21,484 in 2006 and 24,738 in 2007. And there were convictions in 5,353 cases in 2005 (25.7%), 3,579 in 2006 (16.6%) and 3,911 in 2007 (15.8%).
Such mismatch between cases registered and conviction surely casts an ominous shadow on functioning of the justice delivery system at the lower levels, but importantly, it also raises a serious question about the ability of the police to conduct proper investigation and prepare a watertight case.
In Maharashtra, the conviction rate remained abysmally low at around 4% in each of these three years - 616 of 13,370 cases in 2005, 584 of 14,452 in 2006 and 597 of 14,924 in 2007.
This trend negates the consistent efforts of the Supreme Court to sensitise judges to the heinous crime that scars the victim for rest of her life. It had in numerous rulings said: "Courts must hear the loud cry for justice by the society in cases of heinous crime of rape of innocent helpless girls of tender age, and respond by imposition of proper sentence."
This passionate appeal of the apex court through its ruling appears to have gone unheeded even in Delhi, where the conviction rate in these three years has remained low despite the city registering an increase in such cases from 10.8% in 2005 to 12.4% in 2006 to 13.4% in 2007.
While 4,351 cases of crime against women were registered in 2005, the trial courts recorded conviction only in 473 cases. In 2006, as many as 4,544 cases were registered, but conviction was recorded in 565 cases and in 2007, 4,804 cases were registered, while courts found the police case true in 646 cases.
West Bengal was another state, like Maharashtra, that recorded very low conviction rate, or as statistics tell us, the accused went scot-free. If in 2005 the conviction rate was 6% of the cases registered, it recorded a small increase to 7.8% in 2006 before falling to 2.8% in 2007.
With these statistics staring at us, another missive of the Supreme Court to the trial courts has fallen in deaf ears. It had said: "Protection of society and deterring the criminal was the avowed the object of the law and that was required to be achieved through appropriate sentencing policy."
But, if the police does not prepare a water tight case, there is little the courts can do to bring the culprits to book.
Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu appear to have somewhat acceptable levels of conviction rate. In UP, 2005 saw a conviction rate of 43.5%, but it steadily declined to 41.5% in 2006 and 32.9% in 2007. Tamil Nadu, which had recorded a conviction rate of 53.5% in 2005, also showed a downward trend - 45% in 2006 and 27% in 2007.