Two-thirds of Ariz. teens have sex by graduation

By the time they graduate from high school, nearly two-thirds of Arizona teens will have had sex.

Despite that startling statistic from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and data showing teen pregnancy rates on the rise after a decade of decline, parents may know little about what their own teens are learning, if anything, in school sex education programs.

A coalition of health and child advocacy groups hopes to change that, targeting parents in the hopes that they'll encourage school boards to require sex education that includes information on pregnancy and disease prevention and ban inaccurate information found in abstinence-only curriculum used in some East Valley schools.

"Parents overwhelmingly support teaching teens comprehensive information and yet schools continue to pass abstinence-only curricula," said Addy Bareiss of the Arizona ACLU and coordinator for the Coalition for Healthy Arizona Teens. "So there's a disconnect."

Bareiss and the coalition will host a forum Thursday at Chandler's Tumbleweed Recreation Center, offering health experts, educators and teens to field parents' questions and concerns about sex education at their local schools.

Horizon High School junior Alexa Magee will tell parents that teens need as much accurate information as they can get. Magee, who volunteers for Coalition for Healthy Arizona Teens, said her school offers a basic health class, but nothing about how to prevent sexually transmitted infections or pregnancy.

"Since we're not really getting that information at school, it kind of creates a roadblock between us and our parents," Magee said. "Because that's really the only other source of legitimate information we can get."

Teens want to get information from the grown-ups in their lives, Magee said, but it's not always easy.

"It's awkward talking to our parents," she said. "We don't really know the specific facts, so we don't have stuff to base questions on."

As a result, she said, teens often pick up misinformation that "spreads like wildfire" among their peers.

Magee said abstinence-only programs aren't enough. She estimated that 40 percent of the college-bound crowd she hangs out with are sexually active in one way or another.

There's no requirement that Arizona schools teach sex education. But about 28,000 students last year were part of state-funded abstinence-only programs, which are required to teach that sex outside of marriage "is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects."

Arizona has received its share of more than $1 billion in federal abstinence funding over the past decade, but Gov. Janet Napolitano in January joined 15 other states to reject the funding - about $1.3 million for Arizona - citing studies that show the just-say-no message has been largely ineffective. Since then, nine more states have followed suit.

Napolitano had planned to funnel $800,000 in state matching funds into family planning for community college students. Much of the teen birth-rate increase has been driven by 18- and 19-year-olds.

But that money, along with $9 million in teen pregnancy prevention funding, went to help balance the state budget.

Local schools continue to offer abstinence-only programs thanks to other sources of federal funding, including direct grants to organizations like Catholic Charities, which presents "Choosing the Best" in Kyrene and Chandler school districts.

The programs are free to schools, but several national studies have challenged the accuracy of abstinence-only programs like Choosing the Best, particularly with regard to claims that condoms are ineffective.

"It's not just that they're not getting information; they're getting bad information," said Dr. Mary Rimsza, former head of pediatrics at Maricopa Medical Center and executive member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"And bad information leads teens to make inappropriate decisions," said Rimsza, who is a panelist at Thursday's forum. "If they're told that nothing works, then they use nothing when they choose to become sexually active."

The Chandler Unified School District board unanimously renewed Choosing the Best last winter, but only after some members said they'd consider a more comprehensive approach. Kyrene Elementary School District officials also have expressed interest in broadening the curriculum.

"There's been movement for sex ed programs in Kyrene and Chandler," Bareiss said. "That's one of the reasons we wanted to go to Chandler. We felt like there was a lot more opportunity."

Sex Education Forum

What: Sex Education Forum, featuring a panel of medical experts, educators and teens

When: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday

Where: Tumbleweed Recreation Center, 745 E. Germann Road, Chandler

For more information: Call Addy Bareiss, program coordinator of the Coalition for Healthy Arizona Teens, at (602) 650-1854

By the numbers

The number of sexually transmitted infections among Arizona teens increased by more than 50 percent from 1996 to 2006.

One-third of girls in the U.S. get pregnant at least once before their 20th birthday.

Both first and repeat birth rates increased between 2005 and 2006.

Half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned; about eight out of 10 teen pregnancies are unplanned.

The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System paid for 80 percent of births to the state's teen mothers in 2006.

Source: Arizona Department of Health Services; National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy