Teaching Abstinence

In today's society we teach driver's education i.e., defensive or safe driving. Why? To save lives. We also teach CPR to save lives. Abstinence may be preferable or "fool (around) proof"); but to teach safe sex in schools would be to save lives. I don't believe learning safe sex promotes the act any more than learning defensive driving encourages me to hit the 110 Freeway and wreck my car. MICHAEL SHINABERY, Duarte

Re "Frustration Voiced Over 'Just Say No' Sex Education Plan," March 3: The Republicans and other religious fanatics never cease to amaze me. Abstinence has not worked in centuries and will not work now unless someone finds a way to neutralize Mother Nature. Someone should inform the person with the Lamborghini analogy that if his son got the urge to drive it, he would, whether he leaves the keys or not. If the urge were great enough, he would even settle for a Geo. Just telling him "don't" will not stop him, in either case.

The Los Angeles Unified School District Administration and parents are fighting over whether or not to give students condoms. As a senior at Chatsworth High School, I do not believe it is appropriate to give out condoms to high school students. My friends and I feel that it puts pressure on us to be sexually active. Do we have to live up to the expectations of teen-age promiscuity by using condoms? When you are given a bike, you are taught to ride. What is next, giving us needles for safe drug use?

I take exception to Surgeon General David Satcher's report regarding sex education and to your July 2 editorial, "Sex and Science." The media and public schools provide more information on all aspects of sex than ever before. Yet the policy to give more information seems to have failed, as evidenced by 1.4 million abortions every year and 12 million people newly infected with sexually transmitted diseases, including 40,000 new HIV infections. When abstinence was stressed in classrooms across America just a few decades ago, we were expected and inspired to wait.

"Just say no./Just use a condom." "Wait until you're older./Everybody's doing it." The messages teen-agers receive about sex today are confusing. The result is a lost generation. Many teens have never received explicit guidelines regarding sexual behavior and, therefore, are setting their own standards. The statistics on teen sexuality indicate that too many parents are not teaching their teen-agers to be responsible and that the educational system is not doing its job in this subject.

I take exception to Surgeon General David Satcher's report regarding sex education and to your July 2 editorial, "Sex and Science." The media and public schools provide more information on all aspects of sex than ever before. Yet the policy to give more information seems to have failed, as evidenced by 1.4 million abortions every year and 12 million people newly infected with sexually transmitted diseases, including 40,000 new HIV infections. When abstinence was stressed in classrooms across America just a few decades ago, we were expected and inspired to wait.

Something is very wrong with our logic. There are condoms in our schools. This "solution" is supposed to encourage inner-city high school students, who are the focus of contraceptive services, to "plan ahead" and use condoms during sexual activity. Teaching abstinence as an alternative has been rejected. For the second year in a row, Senate and Assembly Democrats rejected $7.

Something is very wrong with our logic. There are condoms in our schools. This "solution" is supposed to encourage inner-city high school students, who are the focus of contraceptive services, to "plan ahead" and use condoms during sexual activity. Teaching abstinence as an alternative has been rejected. For the second year in a row, Senate and Assembly Democrats rejected $7.

"Just say no./Just use a condom." "Wait until you're older./Everybody's doing it." The messages teen-agers receive about sex today are confusing. The result is a lost generation. Many teens have never received explicit guidelines regarding sexual behavior and, therefore, are setting their own standards. The statistics on teen sexuality indicate that too many parents are not teaching their teen-agers to be responsible and that the educational system is not doing its job in this subject.

Some Simi Valley school officials want their district's sex education program to include information about birth-control methods in addition to teaching students to just say no. School board members said the district's curriculum correctly stresses abstinence as the only way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

The Los Angeles Unified School District Administration and parents are fighting over whether or not to give students condoms. As a senior at Chatsworth High School, I do not believe it is appropriate to give out condoms to high school students. My friends and I feel that it puts pressure on us to be sexually active. Do we have to live up to the expectations of teen-age promiscuity by using condoms? When you are given a bike, you are taught to ride. What is next, giving us needles for safe drug use?