Nationwide, teen pregnancy is still trending downwards, but aberrations such as this school in red Ohio make you worry all over again about abstinence education (which has never empirically been proven to be as effective as sex education).

CANTON, Ohio -- An Ohio school board is expanding sex education following the revelation that 13 percent of one high school's female students were pregnant last year.

There were 490 female students at Timken High School in 2005, and 65 were pregnant, WEWS-TV in Cleveland reported.

The new Canton school board program promotes abstinence but also will teach students who decide to have sex how to do so responsibly, bringing the city school district's health curriculum in line with national standards.

Sounds like the Give Up effect in action. They try the stupid abstinence education technique, then holy shit! All the girls in the school get knocked up! How'd that happen? Hmmm. Maybe this is why.

The Rev. David Morgan served on a committee that developed the lesson plans.
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The Ohio Department of Education doesn't require schools to provide sex education, particularly when it comes to using contraceptives. The state curriculum calls for venereal disease education, which often is taught along with nutrition and the effects of drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
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According to the Canton Health Department, statistics through July 2005 showed that 104 of the 586 babies born to Canton residents in Aultman Hospital and Mercy Medical Center had mothers between the ages of 11 and 19.

It's not clear from the language of the article whether this priest worked on the old curriculum or the new one. I'm guessing the old one. And why are priests designing curricula period? If Ohio keeps this up, they'll end up in this map.




Menacker F, Martin JA, MacDorman MF, Ventura SJ. Births to 10-14 year-old mothers, 1990-2002: Trends and health outcomes. National vital statistics reports; vol 53 no 7. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2004.