The Birds and the Bees

Perhaps it was merely coincidence that now 17-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears announced her pregnancy at the same time that the indie smash "Juno," a sassy comedy about a teen dealing with an unwanted and unexpected pregnancy, became a shoo-in nominee at nearly every American awards show.

Whether it was perfect timing, coincidence or whatever you want to call it, there is a link between the two that is all too real for thousands of girls across the country.

Within the past few years, the annual number of pregant 15- to 19-year-olds has hit roughly 750,000, according to Planned Parenthood statistics. The national average of pregnant teens 15 to 17 years old has increased 3 percent in recent years, after a steady decline in the '90s. And according to Annette Magnus, public affairs coordinator for Southern Nevada Planned Parenthood health care center, Nevada leads the nation in teen pregnancy, with 113 of every 1,000 teen girls getting pregnant in 2007.

Foothill High School senior Courtney Malkin, 17, is among them.

"I don't really think teen pregnancy is the best thing for anyone, but obviously it does happen," says Malkin, who had her son, Preston, Feb. 8, after she graduated at the end of last semester.

"People ask me if I had the choice to undo what I did, would I do it, and I reply no," Malkin says. "I was a huge slacker and never took school seriously and was pretty much going nowhere fast. It's because of what I did that forced me to get my act together as quickly as I did. Many people look at teen pregnancy so negatively, no matter what we do," she says, but teen mothers actually can rise above or be motivated by their circumstances. Malkin plans to go to school to be a court reporter and raise her son with husband Josh, 19, who she married in October. He's in the Marine Corps.

"Having my husband is a big plus as well," Malkin says. "Even though he works a 12-hour shift, he is very helpful when he gets home from work."

Malkin says she took health education, which includes two weeks of sex education. The two-week portion is not required for graduation, and a parental signature must be verified before a student can begin the course. The current Clark County School District sex-education curriculum requires that students are taught about AIDS, the reproductive system, related communicable diseases and sexual responsibility, with no clear direction to teachers for the latter.

The curriculum also stresses abstinence, which draws mixed reactions from students.

"I'm not sure taking sex ed matters, because usually teens just do what we want to, but I don't think teaching kids about safe sex hurts," Malkin says.

Silverado High School senior Joseph "Sterling" LaBlanc agrees.

"I really think (teachers) shouldn't just tell them not to do it," he says. "They should be spending more time teaching kids ways to keep safe if they decide to do it."

Foothill health teacher Chris Tomlinson promotes abstinence until adulthood but is well aware of what some of his students are doing outside of school.

"The school district has pretty conservative ideas about sex education, and while I think we teachers should always stress abstinence, I do not see the harm in teaching students how to protect themselves in those types of situations," Tomlinson says. "If they're not going to listen to me about abstinence, at least they know what to do."

There is another aspect to the decision to adopt an abstinence-only curriculum. The district received about $850,000 in federal funding in 2006 for abstinence-only classes, which it would not receive if comprehensive sexual education was taught.

Some states have foregone the funding -- which amounts to about $176 million nationwide -- in order to change their sex-ed programs. Some middle and high schools in Maine have provided birth control and condoms to students, and 16 states including Arizona and Colorado have rejected the abstinence-only funding and adopted comprehensive sex-ed curricula that teach abstinence in addition to avoiding pregnancy.

Under Nevada law, outside organizations are not allowed to participate in teaching sex ed. Laura Deitsch, education program manager for Planned Parenthood, has been told by the school district and some private schools that she cannot enter their classrooms, but she has contributed to programs at nontraditional schools; Boys and Girls Clubs; Child Haven; the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; the College of Southern Nevada; and others.

"Kids need honest and accurate information to make healthy decisions," says Deitsch, whose program teaches pregnancy avoidance in addition to abstinence.

She also thinks there is a lack of consistency among public school classes.

"Some teachers will go as far as they can go under district policy, while others don't go as far out of fear of not knowing exactly what they can and cannot do," she says. "But the kids who are getting better access to the right information usually end up making better, safer choices in the end."

Deitsch also says she believes many parents are not sufficiently aware of what goes on in the classroom.

"There has been a huge push for abstinence in the last seven to 10 years, and some parents still think their kids are getting the same education they got -- meaning that they're learning protection as well as abstinence -- but they're not," she says. "Also, most parents think their kids either won't or don't listen to them and they get their information from friends so they don't bother, but many teens will tell you they want information from their parents."

Deitsch and Magnus say that in the years abstinence has been pushed, numbers for teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases have risen in Nevada.

"I figure about half of my students are sexually active," Tomlinson says. "I'm a realist, so I do not think adding comprehensive education is harmful; it prepares them for life. But abstinence definitely needs to be taught, there's no question about that."

Donna Robinson of the Women's Resource Center, a Christian-affiliated group, says she favors teaching abstinence and thinks kids need to be informed that all comprehensive education tools, such as using condoms and contraceptives, will not keep them safe 100 percent of the time.

"Abstinence is the only way that it is guaranteed to protect you from STDs and pregnancy," she says. "I believe that the reason Nevada's rate for teen pregnancy is so high is that kids believe these items will work no matter what, and they don't always. High school students -- and even middle school students -- aren't stupid; they just need to be informed."

But Foothill junior Caitlyn Belcher, 16, disagrees that an abstinence-only curriculum is effective.

"I only really remember being told not to 'do it,' " says Belcher, who took the class during her freshman year. "I completely understand why they do teach abstinence and it is an important thing to know, but they're not teaching us what real life is -- and sex, for most people, becomes a big part of life.

"I would like to see them teach them the effects of everything involving sex so they don't have to learn it incorrectly from friends. We're in school to learn."