Lessons That Preteens Need

An old myth is being pushed again in Orange County, the myth that sex education courses in school lead to promiscuity and pregnancy.

The board of the Capistrano Valley Unified School District is considering expanding its “family life” curriculum, which is now being taught in grades seven through 12, to elementary school students. In addition to sex education the course includes classes on drug and alcohol abuse.

The need for such classes is evident in the growing rate of drug and alcohol use by pre-teens and reports from agencies in the field of sexually active children as young as 9 years old.

Opponents have been raising the tired and unfounded arguments that such school programs promote immorality. They also claim that increases in teen-age pregnancies and abortions in the nation are connected to the rise in sex education programs. Historically, just the opposite is true. Youngsters who know the most get into the least trouble.

A recent international study reports that most other industrialized nations have more liberal sex education programs and policies--and much lower teen-age birth rates--than the United States.

In Orange County, the Santa Ana Unified School District, which has no formal sex education program, has the highest reported teen-age pregnancy rate at 23.4 per 1,000 students ages 10 through 17. The Irvine Unified School District, which has a family life education program, has the lowest rate at 1.4 per 1,000. Other factors certainly must be considered, but the statistics worldwide, and the fact that the teen-age birthrate in Orange County has been dropping steadily for the last three years, refutes the claim that sex education is a direct cause of teen-age pregnancy.

According to national studies, a majority of youngsters between the ages of 15 and 19 are sexually active.

Teen-agers will learn about sex. The question is: Where? And from whom?

A good place is the enlightened and carefully drawn programs being offered by school districts like Capistrano Valley Unified. The overwhelming number of parents who sign permission slips allowing their children to take such courses when offered is another indication of the courses’ worth, and acceptance.

That, rather than the misguided protests, should be what prompts the Capistrano Valley school board, and other district trustees, to offer the sex education that parents simply haven’t been providing.