Slouching Towards Gonorrhea

Yes, it's a play on words from Bork's book (which I've never read, btw...)

This story prompted this post:

Sex Survey 'Eye-Opening' For Local Parents
By MARILYN BROWN
Dec 11, 2005

TAMPA - Many Hillsborough County middle and high school students lead double lives - one for their parents and one for their peers.

In a districtwide survey, nearly half of high school students and one in five middle school students said they have had sexual intercourse, and a higher percentage of high school boys than girls reported being physically hurt by their "significant others."

20 PERCENT of MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS are having sexual intercourse. (Curious as to what is defined as sexual intercourse by the researchers and how it was explained to those taking the survey... is it the "No Hands" rule that Clinton relied on?

"We really do not understand what's going on with kids today," Lloyd Zimet, who oversees prevention and wellness programs for Hillsborough schools, told a small group of Parent-Teacher Association parents and grandparents last week.

The spring survey of more than 5,000 randomly selected Hillsborough students revealed other risky behaviors.

Among student-reported activity from four thick survey volumes compiled by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

• Nearly one-third of high school students said they were propositioned to buy, bought or sold drugs while at school.
• Condom use decreases with age, dropping from 78 percent in eighth grade to 61.4 percent for high school seniors.
• More male high school students - 16 percent - reported being physically hurt by their significant others than female students, at 11.8 percent.
• More than 9 percent of male and nearly 12 percent of female high school students said they were physically forced to have sex.

9% to 12% of students were physically forced to have sex!!! Although, the good news is that our MIDDLE SCHOOLERS are diligent when it comes to condom use!!!!

"I know that is happening, because my son constantly gets letters from girls who want to do sexual things to him," said Paula Thomas, mother of five children ages 9 to 16. "It starts in the sixth or seventh grade."

At school, the Citrus Park mother said, "They know to stay out of certain hallways because of the girls."

Somewhere, Betty Friedan is cheering the (apparent) sexual aggression of the "fairer sex".

Parents at the meeting, who often are involved in schools as PTA board members, said they didn't know about the survey. Had their children been a part of it, Zimet said, they would have been asked to sign permission slips.

"There is no way I'd want [my son] to take that survey if he was in middle school," said Camille Johnston, mother of children ages 7 and 10 who attend Nelson Elementary School in Dover. "But I'd want those results."

You wouldn't want your son to take the survey because he's too busy with school work? And as far as results are concerned, perhaps you should talk to your son to find out "the results" from him directly

Parents need that type of "eye-opening" information, the PTA leaders agreed.

"I'm a pretty involved parent, but I'm pretty ignorant about what the trends are," said Sharold Allen, the county council president who asked Zimet to make the presentation. "This is so important."

The trends? It's not the trends, it's your kid's values that you're likely ignorant about....

[...]
Parents usually don't see the results because those go to community agencies and committees dealing with such issues.

One Hillsborough PTA board member not shocked at the district's survey results was 89-year-old Bill Monfort, a World War II veteran and a parent of three living children, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

"I can't say that I'm surprised," Monfort said. "People do a lot of things today that people didn't used to do - and at a younger age."

You don't say, Mr. Monfort. Why is this the case? Is it just the "progression" of human society that kids start having sex earlier? What has changed from when you were a child in the 20s and 30s, Mr. Monfort? Is it the parents? The community? The media? The morality of our culture? post-modernism? nihilism? relativism?

As the father of two, this is really disturbing.

Your Co-Conspirator,
ARC: St Wendeler