Sobering statistics in teen birth rates and increasing pressure from community health advocates have prompted the introduction of sex education programs in several Tulsa-area schools.
The Tulsa City-County Health Department will be bringing the Personal Responsibility Education Program, or PREP, to secondary students in Tulsa Public Schools' summer school in the coming weeks.
More than 1,000 secondary students in the Jenks, Sand Springs and Union school districts already participated in the program this spring.
"The data itself demonstrates that we certainly have a need in our community for this type of education," said Pam Rask, division manager of health promotion and outreach for the Health Department. "A recent survey showed that half of all high school students in Oklahoma have already had sex. I'm a parent myself - I would rather they learn from experts, rather than their peers."
Oklahoma does not require schools to teach sex education, but it has the fifth-highest rate of teen births in the nation among 15- to 19-year-olds and the second-highest rate in births to teens ages 18-19.
Assistant Superintendent Verna Ruffin said although a program like PREP has never been taught at TPS, officials there were willing to move forward with it after they began meeting about a year ago with health advocates from the Tulsa Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coalition.
"The driving factor was the community - that was it. We concur there is definitely a need for accurate information going out to our young people," Ruffin said.
After TPS' summer school program begins next week, high school students' parents will be invited to attend informational sessions about the program, which will be offered after school only to students with parental consent. Parents will have the opportunity to review all curriculum materials and to ask questions. They can even attend the classes.
The Health Department secured a grant to fund the PREP program, which is evidence-based and taught by health educators who have received special training in the curriculum.
The program's aim is prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.
To that end, students will learn about abstinence and safer sex, skills to better negotiate abstinence, proper condom use and responsible sexual behavior, plus healthy relationship and life skills.
"Our ultimate goal is to be able to help them understand good choices where it concerns risk-taking behavior and how it could affect their future goals and dreams," Rask said.
With other local schools working on the inclusion of such curriculum in science classes, TPS officials say their summer school opportunities will likely not be the end of sex ed for Tulsa students.
"I would like to have a committee with parents and students and district representatives to look at the feasibility of offering a curriculum for our students. I would like to have that group give me some information and feedback on offering a middle and high school program and not necessarily after school," Ruffin said. "There are different models across the nation. Some are offered as part of the science curriculum - but whatever we did would always be with parent option."
Measurable consequences
A 2011 report from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found that the 7,581 births to Oklahoma teens in 2008 cost state taxpayers an estimated $190
million. About one-third of those births were to teens ages 17 or younger while 89 were to girls ages 10 to 14. More than 20 percent of those births were to teens who were already mothers.
The total expenditures are based on an analysis of major federal and state programs,
including Medicaid, child welfare, increased incarceration rates and lost tax revenue due to decreased earnings and spending. Of the total teen childbearing costs included in the Oklahoma report for 2008, 48 percent were federal costs and 52 percent were state costs.
Andrea Eger 918-581-8470
andrea.eger@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: TPS launching sex ed program to help curb teen pregnancy
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