(9-10) Teenagers may be old enough to make their own decisions, but they still look up to the adults in their lives. Many adults did not wait to have sex. As role models, adults should be able to talk comfortably with students about sex. This may help decrease the pregnancy rate because then, the adults are able to explain their own mistakes. It may also help the teenagers understand why it is so important to wait. Sexually Transmitted Diseases are also growing exponentially. This is because there is no end to the diseases; they transfer from person to person. These diseases can lead to infections inside of the body, or even death. Even though the sex education curriculum needs to be more about abstinence, it is still good that it teaches students about safe sex, because it enforces the idea of having protection while having sex. There will never be a stop to Sexually Transmitted Diseases, but by teaching students how to use condoms correctly, it may reduce the growing rate of STDs. During the year of 2003, in the high schools of Massachusetts, students took a survey about condom availability. It concluded that "Several evaluations have shown that adolescents in schools with and without programs are equally likely to become sexual active, and in 2 of 3 studies, sexually active youths were more likely to report having used condoms during their most recent sexual encounter" (Blake et al. 955). Condom availability in schools is a great idea to set forth. It may be awkward for teachers and administrators to pass out condoms to students, but at least sexually active students will have access to condoms while they are in school.
Bringing a child into the world can be difficult emotionally, physically, and economically. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's web site, The Importance of Prevention, (quoted in McKee, Ragsdale, Southward 99) states that "teen pregnancy and childbearing bring substantial social and economic costs through immediate and long-term impacts on teen parents and their children.
