The Huron Expositor, 1983-11-23, Page 7his 140,40pe n pre) >}>t y
t933 stint t a HUrontnty Web
t S1td Rays m040114,64.1011 lie knows'
+}dfl
}► 'e by the a they re in
rs
aged '•1,4 Or.so."
Gu3lits
eir n'greu:Senior• high s� 1 studentsty
'440 -year-old film that .talks .pout
I;ea and masturbation.
Ilse,parents and the rest of us live
that exploits sex to sell products.
Bat It's alio • a society that's not really
comf9rtflble with frank discussion (Altman
V.
gagers growing up in the -80s get a
stlble,message about sex. "Society throws
dais staff at them (pornography, nubile
ppre-tepq models being used to sell jeans),
but jet
says you have, to be a virgin when
ydµ(}ct married," says Karen Byers, family
Addles teacher at Seaforth District High
School (SDHS).
'rho .contradiction may be a clue about
Why teenagers whoare sexually involved
andlminv about, birth control don't use it, "If
ggo're.on the pill and don't have a steady
Boyfriend, you're defined as sexually easy,"
says. Jane. "There's an unwritten rule that
you have to have a steady boyfriend before
vyeil► comp, out here." The location is the
Huron County Health Unit's family planning
clinic at Huronview where counselling and
contraception is available to anyone over 16.
Our kids are "pushed into the sexual
realm faster than any other generation has
been" says Mrs. Byers, whose sexuality
course talks about why- sex before you are
old enough, to handle it isn't a good idea.
"When you're 18, you're old, says Terry
Johnstolh, head of the phys. ed department,
at the same school..The sex education unit
he teaches to Grade 10 health e1a'sses (from
womb to tomb he calls it) was taught at the
Grade 12 level when it first came out 10 or,12
years ago. "Now Grade 12 is too late. If kids
haven't been t ght anything at home,
grade 10 is too te.
GR UP PRESSURE
Group pressu a mea at if two or three
friends are sexually active and one isn't,
"that one either has a 'well-developed
philosophy on why she's not or she joins the
group," says Mr. Johnston. That goes for
boys as well, he. adds.
Kids are out there doing it," says Karen
Byers. "To say they aren't is burying your
head in the sand."
On the other hand, a family planning
shake saYli:'plentrot"teenagett know (they
are net ready for sex and act accordingly.
"One 16 -year-old says she's too busy with
sports, her schoolwork. her part-time job."
Lots of teenagers still say they won't get
involved with sex until they get married, but
they -ate a minority.
But sex in movies, on TV, everywhere,
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nil attsgess teenagers. 1Ytlf to tr r +'"You
th'* your Abe 1, • 1114 uPs 'y u'' see
Mars,'
hue. °� j.
ittlightl
don't you dare:do it,' titan work.
lee anything else, "you'll make up your
own mind."
JRnb's )longtime boyfriends also her best
friend and they talked s lot• before they
decided they were ready to have sex. "Older
people don't realize you can really be in love
when you're young."
Both took responsibility for birth control.
Her older sister told her about -the. family
planning clinic- .Marriage isn't an option for
them now; both have career plans they want
topursuefirst.
"We're fooling ourselves If we don't
believe large numbers of kids are sexually
active," Mr. Johnston says, and Seaforth
'fits into the norm. "If you're a parent with a
se ally • active kid, what do you want,
R tan roulette or them to be prepared?"
though our kids have more mformatlon
a ut and access to birth control than ever
before, teenage pregnancies are at as least
as common as they were less than 20 years
ago when birth control` was still illegal in
Canada.
The saddest cases, says Ruth Linton, the
public health nurse who runs the family
planning clinic, are the girls she sees for the
first thne when they're already pregnant.
"Teenagers are always sexually active
before they come here. (In that case) birth
control isn't a'licence, it's realistic."
BIRTH CONTROL
Often a boy and girl in a ,long term
relationship will decide together to come to
the family planning clinic. Or a mother will
bring a teenager daughter. The Health Unit
rule is that parental permission is needed to
prescribe contraception for a girl under 16.
"That's kind of dtgnb," says the teenager
we call Jane ,rbecausd someone under 16 is
less likely to pet parents' consent." But
that's the way it is, although Mrs. Linton
points out many family doctors in the county
arc realistic with. their teenager patients.
She'll counsel a girl who's under 16, and
refer her to a family doctor.
• When the so-called Squeal Rule, which
•
•
would, 11ave' s ggl;ed' xfedetaily nancdd
tsadlytilk fping elinits Io! req fy,t5e parents
of anyone under 18 who got conttaceptivel ,
was debated in the US, research stowed
more than half the patients already tell their
parents. A quarter of the rest said they'd
gale up the contraceptive if parents had to be
told, but just 2 per cent would,give up sex,
"limy father ever knew he'd kill Inc." is a
statement Karen Byers has heard from
teens.
"Teenagers who shy away from letting
their parents know they are sexually active
will not become celibate. They -will become
pregnant. Then their parents will know,"
says Washington D.C. columnist Richard
Cohen.
Some teenagers don't use birth control for
the same reason they drink and drive, a
feeling that "it can't happen to me." It's the
old story of education being wasted on the
young. Karen Byers says sometimes she
thinks a few years down the road, after
they've had more life experience, students
she's had in her Grade 11 all -girl or her
Grade 13 co-ed classes will say oh, that's
what she 'was talkingabout."
YOU PRETETQ KNOW
While SDHS students get the basics in
Terry Johnston's 10 hour course and Ruth
Linton visits just about every Grade 8 class
in the county, teenaged Jane says "you
pretend to know more than you know."
Just recently Mrs. Linton
talked to a group of Grade 8s about who's
responsible.for what on a date. A 13 -year-old
girl told her you always ask the boy if he has
contraception.
But for all their surface knowledge, our
kids are incredibly naive, Karen Byers says.
Grade 13 students who haven't heard of
herpes and sexually transmitted disease
could be sitting ducks whey they go into the
big, bad world.
While Jane doesn't think it's necessary to -
talk about sex at home, (her parents didn't
with her) a great .deal of Terry Johnston's
course is designed to get students and
parents to discuss sexuality, at least
indirectly. "1 • have them bring in baby
pictures, baby books, get them to ask about
Birth control
While many people don't know it exists,
the family planning clinic at the Huron
County Health Unit office at Huronview has
a steady number of 'regular patients.
Many are teenagers, but some are older
women, married and single. Some clients
who came when the clinic first opened in
1976 still attend, says family planning nurse
Ruth Linton. There have been 48 new-
comers since the beginning of 1983.
Clinic hours every Thursday from
6:30 to 9 p. The phone number is
482-3416.
While the county residence for the aged
might seem an awkward place for a family
planning clinic ("but my "grandmother is
there," Ruth Linton says teens tell her),
clients can protect their privacy by using the
building's rear entrance, not the main one
toHutonview: "^.11• n,.
The clinic, which is staffed by Dr. Anne
- Underwood of Seaforth, and Mrs. Linton, is
a place where anyone can talk over
sexuality, problems or birth control meth-
ods in confidence..
The atmosphere, says teenaged Jane, is
relaxed and the attention is personal. •But
counselling.
getting to the clinic without -broadcasting`
the fact can be difficult because you need a
car.
The family planning clinic usej1 to be
located in the former Clinton health unit
ice, in walking distance of the local high
school. It's only now, two years after that
office moved that numbers of teens
using the clinic have reached pre -move
r
Alc similar clinic operates at the health
unit office at South Huron Hospital in
Exeter. Tuesday evenings from 6:30 to 9
Teenagers who've been using insecure
birth control methods, or nothing at all, are
"scared to death of pregnancy" when they
get to the clinic, Mrs. Linton says. "We
really just skim the top; 1 wish we could get
more of .them."
One year after Mrs. Linton talked to a
Grade 13 class at a county school about
birth control and about teenage, pregnancy,
a student took it upon herself to repeat`the
information to every class in the school.
She knew there was a need; the health
unit's clinic got "a tremendous influx of
kids" from her school afterwards.
n six
what their own;:bi,tth.was liko;•-laYkhitfg' io '
start commtfnication,H The mother of one of
Karen Byers' students told her she was
learning., about her own body from her
teenage daughter.
Terry,Johnston doesn't push any particu-
lar beliefs . or set of values • but he asks the
kids to start developing their own. You can
tell from the reactions in class which kids
have talked about sex at home, he says.
Teac ing sex ed has helped him be more
comfortable with his own children. Like
most of us I grew up jn a , home where
sexuality wasn't discussed:"
While parents don't/object to his frank
classes where various types of contracep-
tives are passed around for everyone to have
a look, "nobody commends, either," he says
with a grin. Only once did a parent take a
student out of Karen Byers' family studies
class, saying discussion of sexuality contra-
vened her daughter's religious beliefs. That
student, a bright girl;, later became pregnant -
and quit school.
"This is a value judgement, but that
ruined her life," Mrs. Byers says. Shesays a
course in sexuality team -taught to all high
school students would be a good idea. (As'
far as she knows, hers is the only sexuality
course taught in Huron in family Studiesct
"You cant stop'discussing the subje
because of some criticism; she says. "Most
parents are reasonable when you explain
what you're teaching and why." '
it's tough to think of your teenager as
either sexually active or trying to ,decide
whether to be so. But Mrs. Byers says,
we've got to pull our heads out of the sand
and look at the incidence of pregnancy. "For
every one teenage girl who is, there are 10
out there who didn't get pregnant."
. Every time a girl from a particular group
of kids or an area of the county gets
pregnant, her friends and acquaintances run
to the family planning clinic, Ruth Linton
says. Kids tell each other about it. "One girl
'brought in 10 or 12 others who needed to be
using contraception." ,. a '
So what's a parent to do? Listen. Talk.
•--Don't preach. Understand. ''Even if you
think your kids aren't involved in sex, know 1
that society' around is pushing that kid,"
Mrs. Byers says. "We should talk to our kids
and help them deal with the pressures.
'Don't' do it' does not work."
(Next week: Teenage pregnancy and the
double standard.)
�. /hasNu •
/� Rr
HUnO'.Ocoos TQ,R..N�MVEMe
°23"'IOSS •�• As
.10.., + r
r 1
Nominatl+n
for the
,
• -
Submit
by November
Seaforth
P.O. Box'885
.11,.,." ✓µ: r r, q..u•, ,,.y 1
- V• �•
AWA DS.
is willber Occep ted -
J01141'41)9 categories. ,
(a) Service to Sports
(b) Civic Service ,
'(c) Humanitarian Service
written nominations
15th to: ,
Recreation Committee .'
, Seaforth ,. Ontario
„
,..
:
cilli. %
1111 •
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