Dr. Norm Constantine views the NAEA's poll questions as leading and misleading. Constantine is a clinical professor of public health at the University of California-Berkeley and a senior scientist with the Public Health Institute, the authors of the California survey that came up with completely different results.

That survey found 82 percent of 1,284 California parents polled supported comprehensive sex education, defined in the survey as teaching "both about abstinence and about how to prevent pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted infections if (teens) do decide to have sex." A surprising 86 percent of evangelical Christians surveyed agreed. Eleven percent of the parents approved of abstinence-only education, seven percent voted for "protection-only" education.

"I think the relative emphasis on abstinence vs. protection should vary by grade level," Constantine says. In middle school, there should be more emphasis on abstinence, he says. At the 12th grade level, "the message should be that abstinence is a good, valid, normal choice" — but since studies show that two-thirds of U.S. students have had sex by their senior year in high school, there should be an "equal emphasis" on teaching about protection, he said.

"I know what the reality is, and I'm looking at the consequences of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases," he said.

Congressional study

Earlier this spring, Mathematica Policy Research Inc. released the results of a congressional-ordered study of four types of abstinence classes. The study followed 11- and 12-year-olds for five years and found that about half had remained abstinent, roughly equivalent to a control group that did not attend the classes.

Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association counters that the Mathematica study was done on early versions of abstinence programs, programs that have since been revised. Huber also points to peer-reviewed studies showing that abstinence education reduces sexual activity and pregnancy rates. Constantine disagrees and adds that there is no evidence that teaching students about condoms encourages them to have sex.

There has been no study of sex education in Utah.

"Utah isn't allowed to keep statistics on the sexual behaviors of adolescents," notes the USOE's Wojtech. "Teen pregnancy rates have gone down in our state for the most part. Is that an indication that our abstinence-based program is effective? I don't know."

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E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com