Program Will Teach Valley Students About Abstinence : Education: State-funded curriculum will be presented to seventh-graders at 11 schools. Idea wins diverse praise.

Between learning about condoms and communicable diseases, hundreds of San Fernando Valley seventh-graders also will receive a tough, new message this year: Abstain from sex.

Endorsed by even the most staunch supporters and opponents of sex education, the state-funded program focuses entirely on persuading 12- to 14-year-olds to postpone sex.

It is a message that will be presented in five hourlong sessions along with the Los Angeles Unified School District’s health education program that includes classes on contraceptives, drugs, nutrition and personal health.

At 11 Valley middle schools this year, the students--with their parents’ permission--also will learn assertiveness training, discuss peer pressure and engage in role-playing exercises. The program, called Education Now and Babies Later (ENABL), was developed more than two years ago by Gov. Pete Wilson’s Office of Family Planning, based on a curriculum developed in Georgia.

It’s receiving high praise from disparate groups. Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles has a contract with the state and teaches the classes in East Los Angeles, South-Central and Hollywood. The Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition worked strongly to establish it.

“The common thread for all of us is that we can all see that abstinence is a positive--and the best--choice for these kids,” said Mellissa Martinez, Planned Parenthood’s program coordinator. “People think Planned Parenthood goes in and throws condoms at people, but we support abstinence.”

Ironically, it is the school district that is raising concerns about the program. Claudia Baker, coordinator of the district’s HIV prevention project, said she believes supplementing the health courses is beneficial but that students should not be receiving mixed messages.

Abstinence should be integrated into the sex education curriculum, but it should be done in such a way that students aren’t receiving conflicting information, she said. “It’s all in the teaching,” Baker said.

Alexx Tobeck, the program coordinator for El Nido Family Centers, which recently received a $105,000 state grant to run the program in Valley schools, said she believes the school district’s curriculum does not go far enough in discussing abstinence.

“It’s very possible we’re going in two directions,” Tobeck said. “Are they being taught to use condoms? They need to be encouraged to wait--not to wear condoms. This is something that’s important and needs to be done.”

Under a 1988 amendment to the state Education Code, teachers must emphasize abstinence as the only protection that is 100% effective against unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Administrators and teachers at the Valley schools, who have not yet been given full briefings on the program, say they believe the abstinence focus is stronger than the district’s own health curriculum.

“The message needs to be communicated and it is a tougher message,” said Joanna Kunes, principal of Madison Middle School in North Hollywood, which will offer the program this year. “We do have children here who get pregnant. We see what happens to them, and it is definitely worth doing something.”

In 1992, 12,870 women under 20 delivered babies in Los Angeles County. Of these, about 9,362 were under 18 and 554 were teen-agers under 15. School district officials, who do not compile teen-age pregnancy statistics, say they believe about half of the 12,870, or about 6,435, could be considered students.

Judith Pratt, the chief of the health education section of the California Office of Family Planning, said nearly 200 school districts around the state offer the program through local contractors. She said the programs are successful.

“They dovetail nicely with the districts’ (sex education) classes,” Pratt said. “Kids find it empowering and positive.”

El Nido, which received the grant along with the Northeast Valley Health Corp., plans to offer the program to 11 of the Valley’s 27 middle schools. There are no current plans to expand the program to more schools.

The 11 Valley schools are: Byrd, Madison, Reed, Pacoima, San Fernando, Mt. Gleason, Maclay, Mulholland, Olive Vista, Sepulveda and Van Nuys.

The first session examines the risks of early sexual involvement. The second and third sessions deal with pressures from society, the media and classmates. The fourth class involves assertiveness training and role-playing. A fifth session is a review done through games and more role-playing.

“It’s not a hard-line class,” said Stannis Steinbeck, assistant principal at Maclay. “It’s positive and the emphasis is on dealing with peer pressure, and that’s something that can be used for any situation, whether it’s drugs or sex.”