It Could Be Worse

In 2005, Kaiser Research released averages for the national teen pregnancy rate.  My little town of Canton received kudos for having the highest in the nation.  It was a big ‘to-do’, you know.  Reporters plagued our high schools and stalked our teachers, all wanting to know one thing:  How did this happen here? 

At the time, the national average was around eight percent, while Timken High School in Canton was at about thirteen percent.  Now, two years later, I was curious to see where we stand.  So, I called up my friends at the community Planned Parenthood and picked their brains.  It started with a simple call to Vivian Tindell, community educator; who kindly directed me to Joanne Green, communications manager.  The following interview, via email, is the product of that brain picking.  

1)      As of 20005, Timken High School was determined to have the highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation.  Now, two years later, do you find that this rate is increasing, decreasing, or staying the same?  If increasing or decreasing, would you happen to the current statistics?  In 2005, the high school did not have the highest teen pregnancy rate in the country.  It was a high number, but I’m not so sure that highest in the nation is accurate.  Two articles in the Canton Repository called “mustard seeds” were the original articles that got this whole thing started.  We do not, yet, have the current statistics for local teen pregnancies.  Even then, these are only the cases reported to the Health Department.

2)      Since the 2005 report, have programs been implemented to address the issue and, if so, what are they?  How are they different from what was being done before?  Planned Parenthood had limited, if any, involvement in the schools at the time the story broke.  We had not been invited into the city high schools to provide education in the city schools; it was only through the GRADS Program, which was for pregnant and parenting teens.  When the program was eliminated, so was Planned Parenthood’s educational role at Timken.  Somewhere along the line-in or around the year 2000-other local agencies started providing abstinence-only programs to the city schools.  That’s how it’s been for quite some time.  I think, in recent years, there was a push toward abstinence-only.  Schools received a lot of funding for these programs (where there is no funding source for comprehensive sex education) and abstinence-only probably seemed more attractive from a parental standpoint.  Again, no one wants to think of their kids having sex.  It wasn’t until this teen pregnancy crisis made national headlines that things began to change.  Now, we’re being invited to the table and into conversations about this very important issue.  Small steps are better than no steps at all.  There is so much that we are doing to try to reduce teen pregnancy in our community.  I could go on and on.  Most important to know is that Planned Parenthood believes in planning for children when individuals and families are physically, emotionally, and financially ready for all the rewards and responsibilities that come with the territory.  When it comes to teens, we believe abstinence is an important part of a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum.  Abstinence is a birth control method that can fail just like the others if it’s not used correctly and consistently every time.  It’s an important part of our curricula dealing with healthy relationships, decision-making, and communication.  But, by itself, it does a great disservice to our youth.  Everyone deserves medically accurate information about biology, their bodies, reproduction, etc. presented in an age-appropriate manner with an emphasis on prevention and responsibility.

3)      What do you think the parent response is to the pregnancy issue and how to decrease the number of pregnant teens?  I don’t know what the parents’ response should be or is regarding this issue.  I imagine parents aren’t very happy to hear about it and don’t want to think about their kids having sex anymore than their kids want to think about them having sex.  But if you're really asking about parental responsibility, I can answer that. Planned Parenthood believes that parents are and should be the sexuality primary educator of their children. Study after study has shown that kids do listen to their parents and do look to their parents' example and do consider their parents to be their primary influence - even if they won't necessarily admit this to their parents. Kids want guidance without condescension. Planned Parenthood has a plethora of resources for parents that want to establish healthy communication with their kids about these sorts of topics. ‘Let's Talk’ Kits are available at different age levels to give parents age-appropriate tools for discussing everything from basic anatomy and appropriate vs. inappropriate touching for younger kids to STDs and teen pregnancy for older kids. In addition, we have comprehensive resource lending libraries, a growing volume of web-based resources, and educators that will work with parents one-on-one or in groups to help parents take control - and feel like they know what they are talking about. There's more, but you get the idea. 

I'm not sure parents really know how to decrease teen pregnancy. Personally, I think most parents believe their kids are not the ones having sex - it's someone else's kids, so they don't think they have to worry about it. I also think parents think their kids already know more than them about the topic and I think kids think they know more than their parents about the topic. I also think most people would rather avoid uncomfortable subjects - not just those related to sex - so I think there is a lot of fear and embarrassment and anxiety involved. I think there are a lot of other reasons parents don't talk to their kids about sex. This is unfortunate because it's such an important subject - one that can have real consequences that can seriously impact their kids' futures.

4)      Why do you believe this is such an issue in Canton ?  I don't think this is unique to         Canton , but without more current statistics, I have nothing concrete on which to base this assumption. I think the story jumped out at the time and was good for the ratings, although it was pretty startling - we didn't know about it ahead of time, but we got calls for months. One of my criticisms early on was that the original story didn't provide an adequate comparison to Timken's teen pregnancy rate and other similar schools. It also didn't go far enough in comparing McKinley to Timken. I think this was a huge disservice and just plain bad journalism. How did this community compare to similar communities? How did Timken compare to other downtown schools in cities of similar size with similar socioeconomic, racial and education make-ups, etc.? Why the discrepancy between Timken and McKinley? Are McKinley's numbers underreported? Do the schools attract different types of students? Are programs at these schools focused in such a way that more pregnant or parenting teens would choose (or be chosen for) Timken over McKinley? I don't have answers.  I think teen pregnancy is a problem generally because you are talking about teenagers and sex. I think a lot of its biology and I think it's cultural.

5)      What role does Planned Parenthood take in the schools regarding education on sex?  Planned Parenthood always makes an effort to work with the schools in all Stark County communities. We go where we are invited and we try to make inroads where we can. Where we can't go into a school, we will work with decision-makers to provide information and materials for a well-balanced curriculum. We also provide workshops and training opportunities for health teachers, GRADS teachers, counselors, parents, community groups, and health professionals - pretty much anyone interested in these issues. We even advertise in student newspapers. Sometimes, if we can't get into a school for educational programming, we might be able to get an ad in the school paper. Then students can at least find us online, have a phone number to call, and know we're in their neighborhood if they need us for any reason.  The role we take really depends on the school, the administration, and other involved parties. If asked, we will even speak to school boards, PTAs, and whoever else has concerns about our programs to maintain transparency and gain consensus. Our intention is to reach out in a positive way to help schools address this important issue so that we can better prevent unplanned teen pregnancies.

Thank you to Joanne Green and Vivian Tindell of Stark County Planned Parenthood for their insight and assistance with this piece.