Sex and education
By Brandon Astor Jones
"These kids knew that what they were doing was ... not right, but they did ... [not] know it was as bad as it was ... There was a naivete about the legal and moral consequences." — Bill Myers, police chief of York Haven, Pennsylvania
A group of children in the small borough of York Haven, Pennsylvania, have taught one another to engage in various forms of sexual activity. The group was started more than two years ago. Then, it involved only a few children. However, by the time the local police found out about what the children were doing, there were as many as seventeen in the group. They range in age from seven to 16.
According to York County detective William "Skip" Clancy Jr, many of the children who were subjected to the sexual activity later began repeating it to others.
The group hid its activities from adults, but upon individual questioning each child was amazingly candid with police. Charges were filed against six of the children: rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault were among them. There were cases involving incest as well, but those were not prosecuted. Two of the children have been convicted and sent to juvenile detention facilities.
More children would have been charged, but they were too young. Under Pennsylvania law, a child must be at least 10 years old before s/he can be prosecuted.
It would be prudent to recognise that some children mature much earlier than others. Marsha Campbell, a health and education specialist at the Rhode Island Department of Education, said: "It would be foolish and misleading to say [children] are all ready" to receive sex education in the fourth grade.
I agree. One size does not fit all. It is also clear that waiting until the fifth grade (which is the most common practice at present in the USA) to teach sex education, for many children, is just too late. The situation in York Haven is more than sufficient proof of that.
In 1997, a study by the American Academy of Pediatrics revealed that puberty for some girls can begin as early as age eight. Judy Robinson, the executive director of the National Association of School Nurses, said, "You [would] be amazed at what kids are asking these days ... They want to know about sexual positions."
Trained professionals like Robinson, who are paid to observe the growth and development of children, could determine whether a child is ready to absorb sex education — using the behaviour a child demonstrates at school, which is all too often the opposite of what s/he demonstrates at home. Keep in mind that the children in York Haven hid their behaviour from the adults in their families for more than two years!
I have said all this to bring to the reader's attention the behaviour of George W. Bush, the posturing front runner for the Republican Party. His presidential campaign is aimed at making the public think that sex education encourages youngsters to have sex.
Of course, he is pandering to the religious and cultural right wing of US politics. Those are the Bible-packing people who seem hell-bent on forcing US children to grow up in utter ignorance of the many pitfalls of premature sexual activity.
It is as if he and they do not realise that early sex education has been proven to promote sexual abstinence, as well as the often life-saving contraception information that is designed to show children and young people how to resist peer pressure to have sex.
Teen pregnancies have declined by nearly 20% in the USA in this decade alone; that is the direct result of early sex education in schools. Bush wants to spend $73 million of taxpayers' money on a new program that, at the core, offers little more than religiosity to children in school. It takes a lot more than the rote recital of the Ten Commandments to prevent teen pregnancy and sexual assaults.
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns (include your name and full return address on the envelope, or prison authorities may refuse to deliver it). He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-63, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.]