A recently released study concluded that teaching abstinence as the primary means of sex education does not work - something graphic design freshman Curt Chickerneo said he already knew.
"You can't just teach only abstinence," he said. "Most people our age are going to have sex regardless of what they were taught so they need to learn about safe sex too, so that they can protect themselves."
The study evaluated abstinence education programs across the country and determined the youths in the programs were no more likely to abstain from sex than those who were not in the programs.
Business management sophomore Nick Detloff said he understands why abstinence is taught, but sex education programs need to include safe sex information as well.
"Yeah, it's OK to go ahead teaching abstinence, but show some other alternatives too," he said. "Because, obviously, abstinence isn't for everyone, and people choosing to have sex should know how to be as safe as possible."
Currently, more than 700 abstinence programs across the country receive $50 million annually from the federal government in order to teach youths to abstain from any sort of sexual activity outside of marriage. Additional funding from state governments brings the total spent on sexual abstinence education programs to $87.5 million, according to the report.
But Freddy Roman, coordinator of the Sexual Health Program at ASU, said many times high schools focus on abstinence education because they are federally funded and therefore have a difficult time teaching anything else.
The report also concluded that going through abstinence programs does not change when a person first has sex. The average sexually active adolescent begins having sex before they turn 15, according to the report.
"Wow, that's pretty young," Detloff said. "In today's world, that's going to happen. That number is probably accurate."
Roman said she agrees with the recently released study.
She said according to the Center for Disease Control, about 50 percent of high school students are sexually active. She also according to ASU surveys, 76 percent of ASU students are involved in sexual relationships. Just teaching abstinence does not work, Roman added.
"We need to have programs that respond to both [being abstinent and sexually active]," she said.
At ASU, Roman has a program that teaches abstinence as part of a comprehensive sexual health program.
But some students think by the time college rolls around, it is too late to educate any more about sexual health.
"By the time we get to college I don't know what a sex ed. class would do," Detloff said. "We should already know about sex and safe sex by the time we get to this level."
Reach the reporter at: samuel.good@asu.edu.
