‘Need for Sex Classes’ Editorial

Your Sunday editorial (July 31, “Need for Sex Classes Shows in Birthrate”) concerning the Santa Ana school board’s vote to accept the AIDS/sex education guidelines gave two misleading facts:

The editorial gave your readers the false impression that those who opposed the sex education guidelines also opposed sex education. The 10 people who addressed the school board and the over 1,000 residents that signed petitions wanted sex education. They just wanted the right kind that teaches young people to postpone sex until marriage to avoid AIDS, venereal disease, teen-age pregnancy and other mental and emotional hardships.

The citizens of Santa Ana opposed the vague guidelines that were not age appropriate. The guidelines did not mention family values or the parents’ role, just the teen-ager’s right to privacy. The guidelines also asked for $18,000 to write the curriculum and $44,000 to publish it--a large expense in light that there are already government-tested, successful programs available.

The editorial used the misleading statistics of birthrates to validate the need for a comprehensive sex education program. Santa Ana and Anaheim do have higher birthrates than Laguna. Birthrates are misleading because in this age of abortion and contraceptives, the figures do not measure the amount of teen-age pregnancy or teen promiscuity.

Also, Santa Ana and parts of Anaheim have a large Hispanic population with a Catholic orientation. Many in this population would never consider an abortion or contraceptives.

Again, teen-age birthrates do not show how many of these teen-agers were married. Hispanics tend to marry at earlier ages. (One study of birthrates revealed that 40% of such teen-agers were indeed married.)

The figures your editorial used were the number of actual births. It is wrong to compare the number of births in the two districts when Santa Ana had 38,000 students last year and Laguna Beach had only 2,100 students.

Santa Ana needs sex education just like any other district. All preteens and teen-agers need sex education. They need to know reasons to wait. They need to know the grave possible consequences of premarital sex. They need to know what behaviors to avoid to not get AIDS. They need to learn how to have creative and fun dates. They need to be taught how to view their lives from a long-range perspective.

Santa Ana does not need a “quick-fix” approach to sex education. Santa Ana needs sex education, the right kind. The one that parents support.

ROSEMARIE AVILA

Santa Ana