Youth Class Promotes Premarital Abstinence

Students in the Orange Unified School District are less interested in premarital sex after attending a five-day class that stresses the perils of sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy, a consultant told trustees this week.

“It’s an abstinence program; we do encourage abstinence,” said Priscilla Hurley, director of the CHOICES sex education program.

Of the 2,513 middle and high school students who took the CHOICES classes, 58% said they wanted to wait for marriage, 30% were undecided and 12% said they’d still consider premarital sex, Hurley said.

Hurley said the numbers might change if the district does not follow up on the class.