From: Tattercoat at aol.com <Tattercoat>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 00:05:49 EDT

Apropos to our discussion of middle school kids and sex, The New York Times today published an article on teen sexual activity. Here is a snippet and the url:

"About 20 percent of adolescents have had sexual intercourse before their 15th birthday ??? and one in seven of the sexually experienced 14-year-old girls has been pregnant, according to a report released yesterday by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. The report, an analysis of seven studies conducted in the late 1990's, offers a comprehensive look at the sexual activities of 12- to 14-year-olds, a group often overlooked in discussions of adolescent sexuality."

The full article is available at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/20/national/20TEEN.html

Sarah Brown, director of the nonprofit campaign is quoted as saying,
"...teachers looking at a class of 13-year-olds can't assume they're in a state of latent innocence." But we could deduce that this is an age group in need of solid information on sexuality and insight into human relationships.

Carolyn Lehman
Received on Mon 19 May 2003 11:05:49 PM CDT