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Juno: Not set in a Texas middle school. But could have been?
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Children at Risk, a state policy advocate organization, published today a series of studies and articles on sex and teen pregnancy in Texas. Some of the results may shock you.

According to a study out of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston:

Almost one in 10 Texas 6^th graders have had sex.
The percentage of Texas 7^th and 8^th graders who have had sex is 22 and 29 percent respectively.
Of high school-aged kids, 32 percent of 9^thgraders, 41 percent of 10^th graders, 53 percent of 11^th graders and 62 percent of 12^th graders have had sex.
Just over one third of the entire public middle and high school population are sexually experienced.
Texas students are more likely to report having had sex with four or more partners and are less likely to have used birth control or condoms.
Texas students are also significantly less likely to receive education about HIV or AIDS in school.
Males are significantly more likely than their counterparts to report having sex for the first time before age 13, having more than four partners and using drugs or alcohol before having sex.

The results come from an analysis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the CDC’s Middle School Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the University of Texas Prevention Research Center’s All About Youth study.

In an accompanying opinion piece, Jane Brown of University of North Carolina writes that Texas policy-makers should focus on educating young people about pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases and increasing access to health care and contraceptives. From the editorial:

We have good evidence that age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education in schools is more effective than abstinence-only sex education – the kind that is still state-mandated in Texas. Economic analyses have shown that sex education is a good investment, too. For every dollar invested in sex education, $2.65 is saved in medical and social costs.
We also know that access to health care and contraceptives is important, but many of the school-based health centers in Texas do not distribute birth control, not even condoms. An expanded vision of what is possible with such an infrastructure already in place could be beneficial for youth who often have no other health care options.
Even though Texas does allow teens to get tested and treated for STIs and HIV, teens may not get prescribed contraceptives without their parents’ consent. In fact, Texas health care providers are supposed to tell the police when they see patients under 17 who may be having sex. Given that sexual initiation begins as early as 6th grade – and almost two thirds of high school seniors in Texas are sexually experienced – thinking of teenage sex as criminal behavior seems especially myopic.

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http://blog.chron.com/momhouston/2011/10/study-finds-one-in-10-texas-6th-graders-have-had-sex/