Contact: Addy Bareiss, Program Coordinator, ACLU-AZ, 602-650-1854 ext. 105, abareiss@acluaz.org

PHOENIX – A panel of healthcare professionals, educators and teens will gather on December 4th for an interactive community forum on sex education geared toward parents.

This event will provide community members with an opportunity to learn more about curricula taught in local schools, recent research findings, and local and national trends on sex education in public schools. It also will give parents an opportunity to ask experts direct questions about teen health, parental involvement, and school programs.

“We must provide teens with comprehensive information that includes age-appropriate and medically accurate information not only about abstinence, but also other methods of pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease prevention,” said Dr. Mary Ellen Rimsza, a practicing Phoenix pediatrician and executive member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Rimsza will be among the panelists participating in the discussion, which will be from 6:00 to 8:00 pm on Thursday, December 4th at the Tumbleweed Recreation Center, 745 E. Germann Rd., in Chandler. The event is free and open to the public.

Other panelists include: Darcy White, a high school teacher in the Peoria School District, and Alexa Magee, a junior at Horizon High School. Both of them have first-hand experience with current sexual health education curricula.

The event is being sponsored by the Coalition for Healthy Arizona Teens, a broad coalition of health, advocacy and educational groups that are working to eliminate Arizona’s use of federal funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that teach inaccurate, incomplete, and harmful information about sexuality. The coalition includes: Children’s Action Alliance ● American Association of University Women ● ACLU of Arizona ● Arizona Foundation for Women ● Arizona Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics ● Arizona Family Planning Council ● Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence ● Arizona League of Women Voters ● Planned Parenthood Arizona ● Arizona Women’s Political Caucus ● Eve Shapiro MD, MPH ● NARAL Pro-Choice Arizona Foundation ● National Council of Jewish Women ● National Organization for Women-Arizona ● Phoenix Chapter of American Association of University Women.

Member organizations formed CHAT to advance statewide policy change that mandates and fully funds medically accurate and unbiased sex education that teaches the importance of abstinence and the effective use of contraception to prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Arizona has the second highest rate of teen pregnancy in the nation; according to the CDC one in four teenage girls has an STI; and many current curricula are not addressing these issues.

A 2006 national review of sex education curricula found those that promote abstinence among teens and provide information about using contraception effectively can significantly delay the initiation of sex and increase condom or contraceptive use among teens.

“We need to provide our teens with a safe environment to learn vital health information, to ask honest questions and receive complete, accurate answers,” asserted Pati Williams, a parent of two teen boys in Chandler, AZ.

Please click here for a flier to the event.