Pennsylvania: Sex Education Gets Nod at School District of Lancaster

The School District of Lancaster's Education Committee has endorsed two sex education programs intended to curb the area's high teen birth rate. Lancaster had the second-highest teen birth rate of any city in the state in 2004, according to the Pennsylvania Coalition to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Last year, 123 SDL students were pregnant.

The abstinence-based program "Making a Difference! A Safer Sex Approach to Prevention of STDs, HIV and Teen Pregnancy" will be offered to sixth-graders. The abstinence-based "Making Proud Choices!" curriculum, which addresses protected sex, will target seventh- and eighth-graders.

Contraception and condom use will be among the topics taught to older students. All students will discuss self-esteem issues, and they will use role-playing to help communicate about sexual issues. Both curricula are to be implemented next month.

Proper condom use will be demonstrated for older students. "I bet you eight out of 10 kids in middle school don't know how to put on a condom properly," Ed Yohn, a health and wellness teacher at Reynolds Middle School, told the SDL board meeting on Feb. 11. "There will be a lot of lead-up prior to" information about proper condom use, Yohn said. However, the district declined to purchase the penis models that are offered with the curriculum.

About 80 percent of the students seen by Kelly Grove, SDL's coordinator for the pregnant and parenting teen program, never intended to get pregnant. "They're not thinking about protecting themselves. Are they going to get an STD? Are they going to get pregnant?" she said.

Parents will have the opportunity to review the materials and have their children excused from the sex education classes.

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