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Community Corner

New Survey Shows 59% of CT Teens Use Condoms

Think your teen isn't having sex? Think again.

Health officials want Fairfield County teens to be more prudent.

According to a new survey, nearly two-thirds of Connecticut's high school seniors say they have had sex within past year. The Centers for Disease Control 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey also found that just 59 percent of those teens used a condom.

'That's what teenage behavior is," said Mark Cooper, director of the Weston-Westport Health District. "They're out there checking out the world."

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That has some worried that far too few teens are taking precautions against STDs and pregnancy. Many area health officials said too many teens rely on peers instead of parents or teachers to get information about safe sex and healthy relationships.

"From our point of view this behavior benefits from open, honest communication," said Susan Yolen, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. "It takes a village to raise our children, but the trouble is, in our village we think that some other villager is having these talks with our teens and they're not."

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Yolen works with towns throughout Fairfield County. She noted that one in four high school freshman said they had sex, according to the survey. Nearly 25 percent of students surveyed used drugs or alcohol before sex.

Nearly 41 percent of all high school students reported having sex within the past 12 months, which is below the national rate of 46 percent. The study also showed that 4.6 percent of students had sexual intercourse before the age of 13.

These numbers mean more talk is needed, said Yolen.

"Providing comprehensive sex ed in the public schools is urgent," Yolen said citing a 2008 survey conducted for Planned Parenthood.

According to the report: "This sentiment crossed party lines, and both pro-choice, and anti-choice voters alike express a preference for medically accurate sex education."

Administrators from area schools, including Westport, Wilton, Ridgefield, Darien and New Canaan declined to comment on the survey. However, Yolen said that doesn't mean the schools aren't addressing the subject.

Positive Directions, a youth focused non-profit organization, works with Weston, Wilton, and Westport. The group aims to educate youth and parents about the consequences of risky behavior.

"These are health problems that need to be addressed community-wide," Colleen Fawcett, director of the Wilton Youth Council, recently told the Wilton Board of Selectmen.

The survey is a measurement of what's going on out there, Cooper said. But the good news is that risky behavior is declining. Partly because of education and partly because of the changing nature of the ways teens socialize.

"They socialize through the Internet. They're connected in the safety of their homes so part of the reduction in risky behavior is it's hard to be drinking, doing cocaine, smoking pot or having sex if your parents are there," Cooper said.

Still, dispassionate, comprehensive, medically accurate information is needed, Yolen said. That's why Planned Parenthood is urging states to apply for new federal funding under the Personal Responsibility Education Program, PREP.

Congress started PREP and authorized $55 million for states to fund evidence-based sex education programs.  States have until Aug. 30 to indicate interest and until Feb. 2011 to submit details about plans.

Congress and the Obama White House created PREP as a means to provide states with effective sex education for adolescents to help them delay sexual activity and to protect themselves when they do become sexually active.

Most agree a comprehensive approach is needed to reduce teen pregnancy and prevent STDs.

"This is good public health," Yolen said. "It's common sense to give kids information." 

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