Educating Teens About Sex

After reading “Too Scared to Be Safe” (Oct. 21) about teen-agers being embarrassed or afraid to purchase condoms, I wanted to share some thoughts.

It is a sad commentary on our disappearing value system, but it seems that all the well-intentioned efforts of our educators to ensure that our children know all there is about sex has only whetted the experimental curiosity of our young.

Four years ago, I authored state legislation, which was signed into law, requiring all public schools to incorporate abstinence education into their sex education curricula.

It is not a simple “sex is bad, don’t do it” approach. Rather, it involves a full discussion of the consequences and responsibilities of sexual involvement.

We need to spend more of our energies teaching our children that they can control their behavior, instead of their behavior controlling them, and that having the courage to act responsibly means more than just buying birth control with a straight face.

SEN. NEWTON R. RUSSELL

R-Glendale