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Opimon
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The Battalion
Page 11 • Thursday, March 11,2004
Abstinence-only education is the key
to ensure teens make the right decision
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ex sells. It always has,
and it always will.
Everything on TV tells
,ociety that sex is the right
lecision. According to the
’arents Television Council,
ouths watch more than 25
lonrsaweek of television
irogramming, and 66 percent
if children between the ages
if 10 and 16 claim their
leers are influenced by television.
Simply put, in a society drenched in sexual-
y-laced images and so influenced by televi-
, a sizeable opposition is necessary to
:ounterthe message that is leaving this genera-
hopeless, uninformed and in need of truth,
fliis comes through nothing simpler then an
ibstinence education program supported by
’resident George W. Bush.
This administration appropriated $55 million
nproject grants to “public and private entities
or the development and implementation of
ibstinence-only education programs for adoles-
:ents, ages 12 through 18, in communities
icrossthe country,” according to the White
louse Web site. Moreover, Bush requested $73
nillion for 2004.
While some consider this an outrageous
munt of money for a social program of this
uture, others are more genuinely outraged at a
lore alarming statistic. According to The
Morning News, 2.739 teenage girls
ecome pregnant every day in the United States,
md8,219 youths contract an STD on a daily
is. Some of these teens have neglected to lis
ente the wisdom of those who care, but many
rfthem are simply uninformed of the perils of
ch a lifestyle because everything about socie-
screams that it’s OK.
Beyond the risk of pregnancy, STDs and
abortion, another risk looms — the adverse
emotional effects. Some teens do get lucky.
Tkyare sexually active to a highly dangerous
involved. Passing out condoms to 14-year-olds
is like giving a 7-year-old a match. “We don’t
care what you do with it, we just want you to
know it’s there,” educators say. On the contrary,
abstinence groups tell developing minds that
condoms aren’t the solution; they’re simply a
way to possibly avoid some of the problem.
Abstinence groups are not anti-condom; they
are pro-education.
Programs that provide no alternative
leave children unprepared) ignorant
F or years, conservatives
have been lauding absti
nence-only education
programs as a way to lower
teens’ sexual activity, lower
the abortion rate, lower the
number of cases of STDs and
raise the moral standard of
the nation’s teens. They say
that abstinence is the only
way to improve teens’
abstinence-only
most effective way
(ip, yet they do not ever contract an STD or
eachild in the making. All seems dandy
Mil they realize the gravity of their sexual
jperience in tenns of its emotional conse-
pience. Sex is, without question, the most pas-
ionate and profound display of affection
letween two individuals. It often creates an
dentity of security and comfort and implies that
relationship is at a very serious level,
tfteen-year-olds who should be worrying about
arsnow have to deal with complex emotional
itoations that they are not ready to deal with.
Ibstinence-only education programs will teach
n the risks that many of them don’t even
now they’re taking.
Abstinence-based education is more than just
moral argument. Its roots are grounded in
omething stronger — logic and reason.
Ibstaining from sex is not just morally right;
's smart. Teens do not need another moment of
omebody going to their schools and explaining
etas if they don’t understand it. Sex is the sta-
isquofor adolescents. Instead of simply stat-
igthe obvious, programs need to present a
lavidto the Goliath that stands today.
Many teenagers who have sex don’t know
bout the emotional, psychological and health
tors involved. Abstinence education groups
lach that a condom is not a surefire way to pro-
itand that other more serious issues are
These programs give students the respect
that other educational programming doesn’t.
They view the teen as impressionable rather
than hopeless.
These programs offer a permanent solution
to counter the half-truth that sex before mar
riage is okay, and give the students a little
more credit before throwing contraception in
their fades and writing them off as another
societal problem.
Children need to be taught there is a reward
for waiting until marriage to have sex. One
reward obviously comes in the form of never
having to worry about an STD, abortion or
pregnancy. But another reward and a more pro
found one comes in the form of honor. There is
something overwhelmingly admirable about
men and women who save themselves for mar
riage. And nobody can refute this. All across the
country, every day, husbands look into their
wives’ eyes and say, “This is the most meaning
ful relationship I will ever be in, and for our
protection and our honor, I am presenting
myself to you as a virgin.” Children must be
taught that people such as this do exist.
Matt Younger is a junior
political science major.
Graphic by Tony Piedra.
The Netherlands has the lowest abortion rate
in the world with between five and seven
women out of 1,000 having abortions each year.
It also boasts one of the lowest teen pregnancy
rates in the world: Less than 1 percent of 15- to
17-year-old females gets pregnant every year,
according to the National Center for Policy
Analysis and the National Library of Medicine.
In the United States, 34 percent of women
become pregnant before the age of 20, and eight
in 10 of these pregnancies are unintended,
according to teenpregnancy.org.
The Dutch government achieves this unparal
leled success through open communication with
teens about sex and a program that educates,
rather than threatens.
Teens are going to find a way to have sex if
they want to. In some cases, explicitly telling
teens to abstain from sex may make them want
to rebel. Although President George W. Bush
and his political cronies claim that his absti
nence-only education program is responsible for
a decrease in the teen birth ratCj this number has
been declining since 1991 — 10 years before
Bush took office.
This type of education program threatens
teens with stories of pregnancy and STDs, scar
ing them into thinking that abstinence is the
only way to avoid these problems. Obviously,
abstinence is the best way to avoid pregnancy
and STDs, but teens must be taught the alterna
tives. Not every American shares the same
moral and religious beliefs as the president.
European programs, especially in The
Netherlands, stress the importance of making
the right personal decisions, not the importance
of abiding by others’ decisions. Dutch sexual
education programs establish an open line of
communication. Almost all Dutch secondary
schools and about 50 percent of primary
schools address sexuality and contraception,
rather than abstinence only, according to the
National Library of Medicine. Dutch children
are exposed to sexuality without the taboo that
the United States places on it, making them
easier pupils to teach.
This open-communication poli
cy encourages parents to talk
with their teenage children
about sex, an important
facet of the European-style
sexual education programs.
According to teenpregnan-
cy.org, 70 percent of teens
said they were willing to
listen to things their parents
thought they were not ready
to hear, and more than 70 per-
cent of teens said that a lack of
communication between a girl
and her parents was a reason she
may become pregnant.
As a result of the greater communi
cation between parents and teens,
^ European teenagers begin hav-
ing sex at around 17 years
old, two years after the
average American
teen starts.
This is an
important sta
tistic, because
children who
have sex at a
younger age
are more
BBBI likely to be
victims of rape: 40 percent of girls who had
sex at age 13 or 14 said it was involuntary,
according to teenpregnancy.org. And logic dic
tates that the sooner a person starts having sex,
the more likely they are to become pregnant or
contract an STD.
The Dutch and European sexual education
programs also stress the importance of contra
ceptive use. These programs discuss the use of,
the pros and cons and the risks involved with
each type of contraception. They also give stu
dents access to contraceptives, making a respon
sible decision more likely.
Conservatives are pulling the wool over their
own eyes, thinking they will be able to stop
teens from having sex. No one can stop teens
from having sex, so why take away their access
to affordable or free contraception?
If sexual education programs teach absti
nence as the only way to prevent pregnancy and
STDs, teens who choose to have sex will be
ignorant of the risk they are taking. These teens
will also be ill-equipped to practice safe sex
when they choose to do so.
Conservative efforts to push abstinence edu
cation are misinformed. If government officials
would look at the results that other countries are
getting out of a total sexual education package
and encourage American schools to adopt such
programs, teenage sexuality problems would
severely decline.
Matt Rigney is a junior
journalism major.
Vietnam veteran should not be memorialized
opening the door to those who committed suicide would be an unmanageable task
CHRIS
LIVELY
Constructed in
1982, the
L/Vietnam War
[emorial stands as
resonant dedica-
on honoring the
ourage, sacrifice
nd devotion to duty
nd country charac-
rized by the nearly
1 million
mericans who participated in the
rim struggle. The wall contains
Highly 58,000 names of those con-
idered casualties of war. Already a
agic and staggering number, that
umber could grow by the thousands
one family’s request is granted.
Almost four months after returning
battle, prisoner of war and U.S.
ir Force Capt. Edward Brundo took
own life due to the psychological
evastation symptomatic of many
ietnam soldiers both during and after
tewar. Now, his family has request-
d that his name be added to the wall
nthe grounds that Brundo’s trauma
’as a war-inflicted casualty, accord-
ig to a news report from World Net
laily. The Brundo family makes a
sensible and honorable request, and it
is one that deserves the utmost com
passion and attention. Granting
approval of such a request, however,
would set a precedent that would be
almost impossible to keep.
Although the memorial is a dedica
tion to all who served in combat, cur
rent U.S. Department of Defense poli
cy states that the names inscribed on
the wall be of those who were killed
or declared missing in the combat
zone designated by President
Johnson’s executive order. Names of
those who died after the war directly
from wounds received in the combat
zone also meet the criteria. As a result
of the Brundo family’s request, a psy
chiatric consultant to the surgeon gen
eral conducted research and reported
that Brundo’s record indicated that he
sustained “severe psychological and
physical wounds” in Vietnam, which
resulted in his death by suicide,
according to The Washington Post.
Maj. John Thomas, chief of public
affairs for Air Force personnel, advo
cates granting the Brundo family’s
request. He mentions that the criteria
for name addition refers to wounds
received, but do not differentiate
between physical and psychological
wounds. The wall currently contains
names of suicide victims, but are of
those who died in and during combat.
All things being equal, post-traumatic
stress disorder and other psychologi
cal abnormalities inflicted by a war of
such devastation and chaos could be
serious enough to drive many to sui
cide. Although this is arguable, granti
ng approval for the Brundo family
would result in the a case-by-case
record review of any veteran’s family
wishing to do the same. While
Brundo’s case may justify an inscrip
tion under these grounds, inventing a
process with today’s available tech
nology to distinguish between war-
induced suicides and those that stem
from other reasons would be a logisti
cal nightmare.
. Also excluded from the list of
names are victims who have died of
cancer as a result of exposure to
Agent Orange. Here too, qualifying
Agent Orange-induced cancer would
become a tedious, impractical task.
Jan C. Scruggs, president of the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund,
opposes the inscription of Brundo’s
name. “If the Department of Defense
decides to go down this route,”
Scruggs argues, “I guarantee you and
the Department of Defense that
20,000 families of service members
who committed suicide will demand,
and will now have legal standing, to
place those names on the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial,” according to
The Post. Scruggs makes a reason
able point as he also claims that there
is simply not enough room on the
wall to include all of those names,
not to mention other post-conflict
death victims such as those from
Agent Orange.
Estimates of post-conflict suicides
of Vietnam veterans reach staggering
numbers, and some say would need
possibly two more entire walls to
accommodate them.
Since the fighting ended in
Vietnam, various names have been
added to the wall, as was expected by
the VVFM. However, these names are
of those who died in training missions
in the combat zones or of directly
related and distinguishable war
injuries not characteristic of all sui
cide victims.
Perhaps the memorial should have
been built with the anticipation of
adding thousands of more names, but
that is another issue in itself.
Nevertheless, Captain Brundo and all
post-war suicide victims deserve to be
remembered and revered for their dedi
cation and services at least in the hearts
and minds of those who cared about
them despite the fact that inscribing
their names in the wall would have cer
tain unfeasible implications.
A spokesman for the WMF said a
decision would be made regarding the
Brundo family’s request in the next
few weeks. In the meantime, the
VVFM will appropriately dedicate a
plaque honoring the victims of post
conflict suicides and cancer next
month, an appropriate way to honor
people who lost their lives because of
Vietnam, despite the fact that it is not
feasible for the wall to be amended.
Chris Lively is a senior
sociology major.