Where was this conference held?
Did parents have to give permission for their children to attend?
How did kids obtain the 'free books.'?
A related article:
Puberty seminar in Waco fuels debate over sex-ed programs
By ANGELA K. BROWN
Associated Press Writer
WACO, Texas ? Taking her two teenage daughters to a sex-education seminar Thursday, Marilynn Dieterich walked by about 40 protesters and few dozen large red signs declaring "Stop Planned Promiscuity."
One of the Pro-Life Waco members handed Dieterich a pamphlet saying the Planned Parenthood-sponsored conference for fifth- through ninth-graders used sexually explicit materials.
"It gave me second thoughts about what I was doing, but I thought, `No, I'm doing the right thing.' Kids aren't babies; they're old enough," said Dieterich, smiling at her 13- and 14-year-old daughters.
About 350 children attended the Nobody's Fool program, now in its 15th year. Organizers said attendance didn't drop this year, despite the protesters and recent radio ads lambasting the one-day conference in Waco.
The anti-abortion activists also picketed outside two Waco businesses: one that provided doughnuts and another that donated pens to Nobody's Fool.
"I fully believe in parents' rights, but I don't want other people deceived by what this (seminar) is about," said Pro-Life Waco director John Pisciotta. "I would just like to expose it ? that's all."
The annual seminar is fueling the debate over which sex education programs are most effective: giving youngsters information about contraceptives or urging them to save sex for marriage.
Proponents of each claim success, pointing to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The nation's teen pregnancy rate dropped 25 percent from 1990-99, while the teen abortion rate fell 39 percent.
Teen pregnancy rates also declined in Texas, but the state had the nation's second-highest number of births among girls age 15-17 in 2001, the most recent data available, according to the Texas Department of Health.
Abstinence-only programs, which are favored by President Bush, have been gaining popularity.
Since 1997 Texas has received federal money for such programs, said Mike Messinger, the abstinence education coordinator for the Texas Department of Health. The state gives local control to schools but requires that programs focus on abstinence.
Texas now contracts with 41 companies to provide abstinence education through various curricula. Birth control is discussed, but mostly in terms of the effectiveness of condoms in preventing sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy, Messinger said.
Texas received nearly $5 million in federal money for abstinence education this year but gets more funding for family planning and other programs, Messinger said.
Pam Smallwood, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Central Texas, said Nobody's Fool is abstinence-based but that sex issues are discussed at a level appropriate for each age group.
Many youngsters don't feel comfortable asking their parents certain questions and could get wrong answers from their peers, she said.
"Children who receive medically accurate information are the children who are more likely to postpone sexual involvement," Smallwood said.
Corley Sims, 17, said she was enlightened after attending Nobody's Fool when she was younger.
"I've been presented with everything, and I've chosen to be abstinent," Sims said. "Not everyone is going to be abstinent, but at least they'll know how to be safe."
The Nobody's Fool curriculum does not mention abortion, but some youngsters ask questions about it after seeing protesters outside, Smallwood said.
Seventh- through ninth-graders attending Nobody's Fool receive "It's Perfectly Normal," a book with chapters on homosexuality and masturbation, as well as cartoon-type drawings of couples having sex, people examining their naked bodies and a boy putting on a condom.
Pisciotta calls the book a "full-scale assault on Christian sexual morality."
Pro-Life Waco has protested Nobody's Fool for years but got little attention until earlier this year with its Girl Scout cookie boycott. Pisciotta said he wanted to show how the Waco-based Bluebonnet Council of Girl Scouts gave Smallwood an award and had supported Nobody's Fool for years.
As a result, several girls left the Girl Scouts, and their parents have since formed new Christian-based troops. The Bluebonnet Council did not support Nobody's Fool this year.
Josh Wymore, 17, said he never attended the seminar and encouraged his friends not to go because of the materials, which he called too graphic and appalling.
"Abstinence is what God's plan is for everyone's (single) life," Wymore said. "If every (unmarried) person was abstinent, we wouldn't be having these problems with teen pregnancies and diseases."