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News 3.23.2011 I The Blue Banner I 3 On the Quad What do you think about graffiti in Asheville? Aaron Swofford Multimedia and arts student OlyverSilinski Art history student “It’s nicer to look at than blank spaces. It’s a form of ex pression.” “If it’s something like chalk and isn’t permanent, I think it’s okay.” “If you have permis sion from the city or government, it’s art work, but otherwise it’s vandalism.” Adam Hartrum Creative writing student Study finds teenage sex numbers falling, but experts disagree with findings, data Ashley Felts anfelts@unca.edu - Staff Writer A recent survey by the Center for Disease Control said teens and young adults are having less sex, but North Carolina may be an exception to the findings. “Surveys display what they want you to see. In the state of North Carolina, if you work in the Department of Health and Human Services, you will see that’s not the case,” said Mi chele Martin, the women and youth education coordinator for the Western North Caro lina AIDS Project. The survey interviewed 5,300 teens and young adults between the ages of 15 and 24 across the U.S. and asked them.ques tions about their sex life. The results showed between 2002 and 2009, 28 percent reported never having any sexual con tact, including vaginal, oral or anal sex, which is an increase in abstinence from the 2002 result of 22 percent. Martin said the results from the national survey did not match up with other statistics specifically about the sexual ac tivity of young people in North Carolina. “If you look at 2009 statis tics, you’ll see that there were 15,000 cases between the ages of 15 and 19 of chlamydia and there were 16,000 between 20 and 24. Those numbers only went up in 2010. Two-thirds of all chlamydia cases were be tween the ages of 15 and 24,” Martin said. North Carolina has the ninth highest teen pregnancy rate in the U.S., according to statistics by the Healthy Youth Act, as well as having 67 percent of all sexual transmitted diseases re ported in North Carolina were between the ages of 15 and 24. The Healthy Youth Act was approved by Congress in 2009 and went into effect for the 2010-11 school year. The act requires students in grades 7-9 receive an education on absti nence, as well as a comprehen sive sexuality education, unless their parents personally remove them from the program. “Research shows that com- "If you look at 2009 statistics, you'll see that there were 15,000 cases between the ages of 15 and 19 of chlamydia and there were 16,000 between 20 and 24. Those numbers only went up in 2010. Two-thirds of all chlamydia cases were between the ages of 15 and 24." Michele Martin Women and youth education coordinator for the Western North Carolina AIDS Project prehensive health education is much more effective in terms of reducing teen pregnancy and reducing young adult sexually transmitted infections,” said Amy Lanou, an associate pro fessor in the health and well ness department. Although the Healthy Youth Act is a big step in giving teens a comprehensive sex education, Lanou said she believes there are still important subjects that have been ignored. “I think that the Healthy Youth Act hasn’t gone far enough. It still doesn’t teach about relationships or any kind of sex that’s not in the context of marriage, or between a man and a woman. I still think it’s way too narrow, but it’s better,” Lanou said. Abstinence-only education in North Carolina was the main form of sexual education prior to the Healthy Youth Act, and it teaches teens to not have sex before marriage while talking very little about forms of con traception. “(Studies) have actually shown that they can delay the onset of sexual intercourse if you give them all the facts ver sus, ‘Just don’t do it,”’ Martin said. Lanou and Martin said they agreed the abstinence-only idea of, “Just don’t do it” is not enough for teens and young adults. “You teach your three-year- old to look left, right, left when they are crossing the street. Are you giving them permission to cross the street? No, but in a circumstance where they have to cross the street, they know they need to watch for cars. Sex education shouldn’t be any dif ferent,” Martin said. Amber Maness, a UNC Asheville student majoring in women, gender and sexual ity, said she also believes absti nence-only education is not an effective way in dealing with teen sexuality. “I think that abstinence-only education is a cop-out on the part of educators. You aren’t learning anything if you’re just being told what not to do,” Ma ness said. Maness said, in her opinion, the survey showed accurate re sults at the national level. “Because of campaigns con ducted by Planned Parenthood and other women’s groups, I feel that there is more of a sup port system for girls who want to wait to have sex than there was, say, in the ’70s,” Maness said. “It’s impossible for these kinds of surveys to be holis tic and all-encompassing, but in general I think the statistics sound like they’re in an accu rate range.” One factor which could make the survey less accurate is the honesty of the teens and young adults participating, according to Martin. “The CDC is a great organi zation that does research. But, because of the nature of sexual behavior, how often are people telling the truth?” Martin said. Maness said she agreed the young people who were sur veyed may not be telling the truth and said the organization, See SEX on page 4
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