Sex Ed class stresses abstinence

About 1,300 St. Landry Parish public school students received sex education last school year through a state-sponsored program, “Choosing the Best,” which stresses abstinence.
The program is delivered through Louisiana Youth for Excellence, administered by the governor’s office.
Deanne Bingham, program executive director, explained the sex education course at the School Board’s executive committee meeting Monday in Opelousas.
“This program has been in existence since Gov. Foster was governor,” Bingham said.
“This program doesn’t cost you a penny,” she said.
Twenty-eight parishes use the Choose the Best program for sex education, she said.
The eight-hour course costs $2 million state-wide, and funded by a federal grant she said.
The program would cost about $20,000 to implement in St. Landry Parish, Bingham said. She stressed the course would be free to the parish.
Bingham said the program has been slow to be implemented statewide because there are only three people in her office.
Jerome Robinson, supervisor of health, physical education and athletics for the St. Landry Parish school system, the program was not pushed last year, but middle school and high school teachers are to be retrained to present it again.
Last year the course was presented at Beau Chene High School, Krotz Springs Elementary, Opelousas Junior High School, Leonville Elementary, Magnet Academy of Cultural Arts, Eunice High and Sunset Elementary, he said.
Bingham said, “We know there are a lot of kids falling through the cracks” in reference to sex education.
Bingham’s presentation on Choosing the Best included:
By 12th grade 63 percent of students will have had sexual intercourse.
Among sexually active teens, 31 percent of teen girls, 15 to 19, have been pregnant and 40 percent of teen girls, 14 to 19, have an sexually transmitted disease.
For every 1,000 ninth-grade students completing the sex education course, there would be 60 more virgins than a control group at the end of ninth-grade.
Learning areas include Risks of teen sexual behavior; Rewards of abstinence; Relationship education; Alcohol and sex; Peer pressure and refusal skills; Abstinence pledge; Character application; Building self-esteem; and Parent interviews.