MCCSC health survey addresses sex misperceptions in teenagers

Monroe County adolescents wishing to remain in good health through abstinence-based behaviors might face peer and school environments that often blur the denotation of concepts like sexual intercourse.\nSimilar to President Bill Clinton's early 1990s claim his "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky did not involve acts of oral sex, some otherwise abstinent-minded Bloomington students might believe oral sex is not sex and therefore engage in oral sex acts.\n"We feel like we have to a better job with our health curriculum -- the misperception oral sex is not sex. Some students also believe oral sex cannot spread (sexually transmitted infections)," said Jennifer Staab, a Healthy Schools Coordinator for the Monroe County Community School Corporation. "The MCCSC health survey is on hold for this school year. We are revising it throughout the summer based on feedback from parents and other community groups … Parents should know what we're doing and feel comfortable." \nStaab said the most controversial issue voiced by community members thus far involved the health study's definition of sexual intercourse and oral sex. She said MCCSC officials and parents are concerned about national rumors and other media evidence of increased sexual activity among middle school students -- specifically the prevalence of oral sex as a perceived method of abstinence.\nAccording to a University of California-San Francisco study conducted by Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, an associate professor of adolescent medicine, one out of every five ninth graders from two Northern California high schools reported she or he had engaged in oral sex -- compared with about 13 out of every 100 who reported an instance of vaginal intercourse. The survey also claimed some teenagers believed oral sex is less risky to their health than vaginal sex and that oral sex is less likely to have negative social and emotional consequences. \n"The fact young adolescents around age 14 are having or considering oral sex and consider it safer and more acceptable than vaginal sex is important information for parents, health care providers and others who work with youth," Halpern-Felsher said in an UCSF news release. "When we counsel adolescents about the risks and benefits associated with sex, we need to understand how they perceive it among themselves."\nStaab said parents, the MCCSC and the Bloomington community are seeking "real data" about the prevalence of misinformed sex attitudes and behavioral patterns among middle and high school students so a collective consortium of community support can "redefine" the town's adolescent health curriculum.\nAbstinence-based sexuality education, which is current MCCSC teaching, often preaches abstinence to students and proceeding lectures introduce students to other health topics such as personal responsibility in decision making, effective communication in relationships and methods of contraceptive choices. Abstinence-only sex education, on the other hand, often teaches students how to say "no" to sexual intercourse. Its critics claim it does not encourage nor teach students how to educate themselves about the realities of human sexual development, or how to protect themselves from STIs if they choose to engage in sexual activity.\nSome sex education experts and health care professionals, as a result, believe the modern realities of teen sexuality require the redefinition of sexual intercourse as a range of attitudes and behaviors instead of a fixed point among other behaviors or a sexual behavior continuum that glorifies intercourse as the end. \n"Parents should be the primary sexuality educators of their children. Sex education also needs to take place in school," said Catherine Sherwood-Puzzello, an IU clinical associate professor in the Applied Health Sciences department. "The health survey isn't about any one thing -- no particular subject. Kids are growing up in a fast-paced world filled with mixed messages about sexuality. The survey asks about what is going on with the kids -- Where are their attitudes? What are their behaviors? What is their knowledge?"\nCurrent abstinence-based sex curriculums often abstain from addressing prevention topics about adolescent "outercourse" behavior unlinked to pregnancy like oral sex and mutual masturbation. Communities in New Mexico and Georgia did not realize the extent of teenage oral sex practices, for instance, until community health inspectors swabbed the mouths of young people and calculated the prevalence rate of gonorrhea in their throats -- low in statistical number, but prevalent nonetheless. \nSexually transmitted infections are caused by viruses or bacteria that like warm, soft, moist places such as your mouth and genital area, according to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. You can get a bacterial infection of chlamydia, syphilis or gonorrhea in your mouth and/or throat, and in some rarer occasions, can develop genital warts (HPV) in the mouth. Herpes is commonly passed between genitals and the mouth, and HIV can be passed through cuts in the mouth or small abrasions.\nThe low risk of transmitting HIV from fellatio is reduced by using latex condoms each and every time, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. A dental dam, a condom cut open or plastic food wrap can serve as a physical barrier to prevent transmission of HIV and many other STIs from cunnilingus. \nStaab said parents are the most important ingredient in curbing teenage misperceptions about sexual activity and the risks associated with sexual contact. \n"We are not looking to do anything but improve the health education process for Bloomington children. The health of our students is one of MCCSC's biggest concerns," Staab said. "(Sexually transmitted infections) are critical issues that can impact kids for the rest of their lives. We want more general community input over their health curriculum. Parents decide whether or not their child participates"