YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — In previous years, when June DeLaRosa taught lessons on sex education, she kind of glossed over the mention of condoms and contraception. But this year, the Highland School District nurse feels liberated.
She can finally address those topics in class and give her students the information she feels they need to make more informed choices about their sexual health.
"We have always been an abstinence-based district, but you can hardly talk about (sexually transmitted diseases) without talking about using a condom and other ways to prevent some of these things," DeLaRosa said in a recent interview with the Herald-Republic.
"I don't think you are doing anybody a service if you are talking about these things and not talking about the benefits of using a condom."
Highland, like school districts across the state, is stepping in line with the Healthy Youth Act, a state law approved by the Legislature last year. It does not require that schools teach sex education, but it sets a standard for those that do.
In September, when the new law goes into effect, all schools that choose to address the topic of sexual function and health must provide more than deterrent-based, abstinence-only information. The information must be "medically and scientifically accurate," ''age appropriate" and include information about abstinence.
"Up until this point, I think we have done somewhat of a disservice. We need to talk about ways they can protect themselves," DeLaRosa said.
While starting a recent lesson at Highland High School by examining the pros and cons of various forms of contraceptives, DeLaRosa posed a question to the ninth-grade health class: "What is the only 100 percent effective form of birth control?"
The class responded with a resounding "abstinence."
That's the first message that teens across the state will increasingly be receiving.
But for those who choose to become sexually active, "the best way to protect yourself is by using condoms — although they are not 100 percent (effective)," said Debra Severtson-Coffin, a Yakima-based sex education consultant who works with local school districts to train teachers on how to address sex education in class under the new law.
"Teachers say (information about contraception) helps and it's needed because of the behaviors youth are involved in," Severtson-Coffin said.
Those sexual behaviors have three key indicators: the county's reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and teens giving birth.
Yakima County had the state's highest incidence rate of chlamydia with 1,120 reported cases in 2006, the most recent year data is available. Of those, 31.5 percent, or 353 cases, were teens 19 and younger. The county's youngest reported case of chlamydia was in a 13-year-old girl. Chlamydia is the most frequently reported sexually transmitted disease.
Of the 166 total reported cases of gonorrhea in Yakima County for the same year, just over 27 percent, or 45, were in teens. The county ranks fourth in the state for incidence of gonorrhea. The youngest reported cases were in 15-year-olds.
Nearly 17 percent of all Yakima County births in 2006 were to mothers 19 and younger — and that included 13 births to girls younger than 15, according to statistics released by the state Department of Health last December. For comparison, in King County, which has the highest number of teen births in the state, teens represented 7.5 percent of the births that year.
The numbers clearly attest that teens are having intercourse and putting themselves at risk.
"We believe it is lack of education and access (to information)," said Amy Claussen, director of education and training for Planned Parenthood of Central Washington.
"We trust young people to take driver's education, get a license and drive a hunk of metal down the road at 70 miles per hour. We trust them with gun safety when we allow them to go hunting; baby-sitting and the Internet. ... How can we not trust them with information about their own body and health?"
So for groups like Planned Parenthood, the Healthy Youth Act is a welcome change from the abstinence-based mentality.
But sex education is a topic that can cross the line of responsibility between parents and schools.
Before schools address the topic, they are required to notify parents, which usually comes in the form of a letter or opt-out form. Once notified, parents are allowed and often encouraged to review the curriculum material. Some school districts, like Sunnyside, provide an educational piece for parents to give them information and strategies for talking to their kids about sex.
Still, the topic of sex education is one rife with controversy and differences of opinion.
Duane Lyons, superintendent of the Naches Valley School District, remembers getting a call from a parent who didn't want her child being taught anything about the subject.
"Then she was appalled that we would teach sex education to any of the kids," Lyons said.
Such reactions are often fueled by a belief that such personal subjects are best left to parents, or by fears that by talking about contraception, teens would be more prone to engage in sexual activity.
But for Jackson Woodard, a 15-year-old ninth-grader at Highland, the new information creates quite the opposite effect.
"They used to say, 'Just don't have sex,'" Woodard said. "Now they are saying, 'You guys aren't listening anyway so this is what you do to stay safe.'
"Now it's a lot easier to think about not having sex."
Information recently released in a study conducted by the University of Washington comparing the effectiveness of abstinence-only and comprehensive sex education programs had similar findings.
The study concluded that teaching about contraception was not associated with an increased risk of adolescent sexual activity or STDs. Additionally, adolescents who received comprehensive sex education had a lower risk of pregnancy than adolescents who received abstinence-only or no sex education.
Still, parents can choose to have their child opt out of any teachings on sex education. That is an option retained in the Healthy Youth Act and it can be exercised by contacting the school.
Veronica Rodriguez, 18, didn't opt out of conversations about sex education. It just wasn't addressed when she attended school in Mexico or at home. Now a senior at Davis High School and the mother of a 5-month-old daughter, Rodriguez remembers topics about sex were avoided at home.
"In my house, my parents don't want to talk about that," she said. "My parents are Mexican and believe first you get married and then you will know what to do. It would be good to have more information in schools because some Mexican parents don't like to talk about it.
"My mom didn't want to talk to me when I had my first period. If she didn't want to talk to me about that, imagine sex."
And even when the topic was addressed once she was in school in Yakima, she recalls there being about 20 girls taught by a male teacher.
"He seemed embarrassed," Rodriguez said. "There were personal questions that teachers couldn't answer. We were told the district wouldn't allow them to answer certain questions."
The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is working to finalize the state's health and fitness guidelines by September. Those standards would include expectations of what topics would be addressed at each grade level. Until the new law was approved, there was not a standard for addressing sex education in the state.
Part of the new law mandates that the information shared with students is appropriate for their age.
"Knowing the appropriate development of young people as well as behaviors happening in each community and (having the) proper needs assessment with schools — that will primarily dictate the messages that we share," said Planned Parenthood's Claussen, who is also a member of the Healthy Youth Alliance, a coalition working to increase youths' exposure to researched, proven and effective sexual health programs.
The Public Health Center of Seattle and King County publishes the sex education curriculum most frequently used by schools in the state. The Family Life and Sexual Health (F.L.A.S.H.) program refers students to their parents or place of worship to answer questions of personal belief or a moral nature.
"We are now just really starting to educate kids (about sexual health)," DeLaRosa said. "Parents have been afraid to talk with kids about this stuff; we're trying to change that."
