5/15/2009 11:47:00 PM
Teen pregnancy rate drops 60% at Chino high school
| |
|
 |
| Courtesy photo |
| | By the numbers... | Using information from YRMC, DeLong keeps track on pregnancies among girls ages 13 to 19 in area towns and cities.
The number of teen pregnancies includes:
• 1994: Dewey, 3; Humboldt, 1; Mayer, 2, Prescott, 51; and Prescott Valley, 31.
• 1995: Dewey, 2; Humboldt, 1; Mayer, 8; Prescott, 48, and Prescott Valley, 38.
• 1996: Dewey, 3; Humboldt, 1; Mayer, 5; Prescott, 45; and Prescott Valley, 43.
• 1997: Dewey, 0; Humboldt, 0; Mayer, 11; Prescott, 43; and Prescott Valley, 41.
• 1998: Dewey, 8; Humboldt, 1; Mayer, 5; Prescott, 51; and Prescott Valley, 60.
• 1999: Dewey, 8; Humboldt 2; Mayer, 4; Prescott, 47; and Prescott Valley, 46.
• 2000: Dewey, 8; Humboldt, 2; Mayer, 8; Prescott, 51; and Prescott Valley, 52.
• 2001: Dewey, 1; Humboldt, 4; Mayer, 2; Prescott, 35; and Prescott Valley, 50.
• 2002: Dewey, 9; Humboldt, 3; Mayer, 6; Prescott, 45; and Prescott Valley, 48.
• 2003: Dewey, 8; Humboldt, 4; Mayer, 6; Prescott, 45; and Prescott Valley, 64.
• 2004: Dewey, 5; Humboldt, 1; Mayer, 11; Prescott, 51; and Prescott Valley, 64.
• 2005: Dewey, 2; Humboldt, 2; Mayer, 6; Prescott, 46; and Prescott Valley, 60.
• 2006: Dewey, 1; Humboldt, 1, Mayer, 2; Prescott, 45; and Prescott Valley, 83.
• 2007: Dewey, 5; Humboldt, 5; Mayer, 9; Prescott, 44; and Prescott Valley, 84.
• 2008: Dewey, 1; Humboldt, 1; Mayer, 1; Prescott, 4; and Prescott Valley, 21.
|
|
The teenage pregnancy rate at Chino Valley High School has dropped 60 percent in the past four years, according to Dean of Students Michael Fogel.
Teenage pregnancies and births in Chino Valley girls between 13 and 19 ebb and flow, according to figures from Yavapai Regional Medical Center, he said. Fogel uses YRMC figures because he believes all or most of the births in that age group from that area were CVHS students.
He said in the 1950s, a downward trend began. However, there was a spike in the early 1980s and then a downward trend in the 1990s. In 2004, another spike occurred when 40 teenage girls gave birth.
Fogel said 28 teenage Chino Valley girls got pregnant in 2005, while only 24 got pregnant in the 2006, 22 in 2007, and 13 in 2008. Currently, he knows of four girls at CVHS who are pregnant.
Officials at Prescott High School, Bradshaw Mountain High School and Mayer High School could not provide teen pregnancy numbers.
PHS Principal Totsy McCraley said the school does not track teen pregnancies. She said the school has information about the number of teen mothers that bring their children to the day care center. However, McCraley said not all teen mothers use the school's daycare and attendance is not an accurate count of teen mothers at PHS.
Fogel said the district started offering sex education classes 16 years ago at the high school.
To combat teenage pregnancies further, he said, Chino Valley Unified School District has used the Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Program, which is now North Star Youth Development Projects, for the past decade and the Reducing the Risk, an abstinence-based program, since 2004.
Both North Star and RTR taught a week of sex-ed classes as part of the students in 8th-12th grade social studies classes.
Diane R. DeLong, director of North Star Youth Partnership at Catholic Charities, said an evaluation of their program showed CVHS students, after taking the classes, are:
• Able to discern situations in real life that might lead to having sex.
• How to avoid situations leading to sex and being able to say "no" both verbally and with body language.
One student said, "This class helped me set my own boundaries and change my life."
Another one said, "It was an awesome class. It really opened my eyes to things I was doing in my life."
While the two programs were successful in curbing teen pregnancies, Fogel said they discontinued them this year. In their place the high school's physical education teachers are teaching sex-ed as part of the freshmen PE/health class.
In the past, he said, to further attack the problem of teen pregnancies in Chino Valley, CVUHS had TAPP offer sex education as part of the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade science classes.
Scott Muir, Heritage Middle School principal, said TAPP has been at the school for at least six years. "It has been here ever since I came," he said.
In the North Star classes, the students learn about sexually transmitted diseases, possible repercussions of sex and preventive means to keep from getting pregnant. "This program is given to the middle schoolers so they think twice before having sex while in high school," he said.
Some parents of HMS students feel that it isn't the school's role to teach sex education. Those children take cardiopulmonary resuscitation classes, for example, instead, Muir said.
Fogel said, "It is beneficial to start sex education in middle school. It's too late to start addressing this with kids in high school. Embedding knowledge and their responsibilities makes sense.
"Human beings are going to be sexually active, so it is important the students' ignorance is eliminated to help reduce teen birthrates," he said.
Fogel said teachers cover in sex education what it means to have a child and if a 14- to 15-year-old is ready for that responsibility. They also cover STDs and HIV.
"Without that knowledge, students may participate in risky behavior," he said.
Paula Rhoden contributed to this story.
|
Posted: Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Article comment by:
Tabetha Martinez
i think that teen girls parents should have serious conversations with them before they get in a relationship with any boys
Posted: Sunday, May 17, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
I assume the data in the sidebar is births at YRMC by zip code (not "teen pregnancies"-there is a difference because not all pregnancies end with a birth). The 2008 data cannot be correct. Otherwise it would seem that the birth rates in Prescott and PV have been pretty steady (allowing for the growth of PV). I think teen pregnancies in the US peaked around 1958. No birth control pills nor abortions around then, the teens still went nuts. Old people say the morals have decayed but they partied like rock stars then too!
Posted: Sunday, May 17, 2009
Article comment by:
Willie Nielson
Wow!.....Chino Valley hasn't changed that much in the last 25 years. Children, just like the parents still get "drunk and........"
Posted: Sunday, May 17, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
Wow looks like a lot of parents are raising another generation of kids who are irresponsible and can't control themselves. If it feels good, do it, and let the government pay the consequences.
Posted: Sunday, May 17, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
Chino's new four-day school week should do wonders for reducing teen pregnancy.
Posted: Sunday, May 17, 2009
Article comment by:
Help is on the way...
Chino Valley might perhaps hire Sarah and Bristol Palin as consultants...
Posted: Saturday, May 16, 2009
Article comment by:
Schmendrick
The editor has removed this comment because it violates the Terms of Use
agreement for dCourier.com. The "Use of Service" portion states, "If you use
the Service, including the Messages Boards or Blogs, or submit essays,
e-mail messages or other information via www.courieraz.com or
www.prescottaz.com, you agree to abide by and be bound by the following:
1. You may not post, upload, or transmit any material or links to material
that is libelous, defamatory, false, misleading, obscene, indecent, lewd,
pornographic, violent, abusive, threatening, harassing, discriminatory,
racist, vulgar, invasive of anotheršs privacy, illegal, constitutes hate
speech, or harms minors in any way. You may not post content that degrades
others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin,
religion, sexual preference, disability or other classification. Epithets
and other language intended to intimidate or to incite violence will not be
tolerated. Debate, but donšt attack. The Daily Courier encourages vibrant
discussions and welcomes active debate in its discussion forums. But
personal attacks are not tolerated, and are a direct violation of these
Terms of Use."
Posted: Saturday, May 16, 2009
Article comment by:
tired
WOW! Something to be proud of!! NOT!
Posted: Saturday, May 16, 2009
Article comment by:
George Seaman
While I applaud the paper's desire to bring this issue to the attention of the community, I found the writing style in the article to be a bit confusing and disjointed. I know it is difficult to write stories about statistical information, and it would appear that this is the problem here. Is the article about teen pregnancy rates? If so how is that being tracked by YRMC? Is it instead about teen brith rates? This could be tracked more easily by the hospital, but that number is definitely NOT the pregnancy rate. The sidebar here in the "e" section does not mention Chino Valley at all, how do the sidebar numbers affect the story? Does Mr Fogel get his data from YRMC? If so is that data about students or about Cv in general and how does he differentiate between the two? It would have been nice to show the statistical relationship between sex-ed and pregnancy rates in a more clearly stated way. This is a very important issue and it would be nice to have it written up in such a way that there were not more questions about the numbers after reading the article than before.
|
Article Comment Submission Form
|
|
