Well, you can't say the Brits aren't trying. Between a pilot program for low-income youth and a new pamphlet providing guidance to educators and adults on how to emphasize the potential positive aspects of sex, Britain has been making headlines for trying new approaches to reduce their high rates of teen pregnancy. Since our brilliant Senior Director of Research, Kelleen Kaye, already wrote a thoughtful post on the former strategy, I will stick to the latter.

The already-infamous "Pleasure" pamphlet apparently encourages discussion of the health benefits of masturbation and orgasms, among other things. And indeed many public health experts agree that masturbation is healthy and natural, though that perspective is not always presented in adolescent sex ed programs. In December 1994, then Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders commented that masturbation "is a part of human sexuality and it's a part of something that perhaps should be taught" in comprehensive sex education programs. This philosophy didn't serve Dr. Elders well in her career (she was eventually fired for the comment), but it has been espoused by advocacy organizations and many online sex education resources.

In the today's installment of the Gloucester Pregnancy Pact debacle (you thought it was over?  HA), Joseph Sullivan resigns as principal of Gloucester High School.  In his resignation letter, Sullivan complains that:

the mayor held a press conference and publicly slandered my reputation, my integrity and my intelligence. Since then neither the superintendent nor any member of the School Committee has publicly come to my defense.

Evidently, we have one more adult who has focused their attention on the absolute WRONG part of the Gloucester story...this isn't about a pact or a media circus or Principal "My Name Is Mud."  It's about seventeen pregnant teenagers.  It's about a school that is in the midst of a real crisis.  And, most importantly, it's about priorities - these girls were all pregnant before Time magazine made them famous.  So why on earth didn't we care until their story was turned into tabloid fodder? 

Read all of Sullivan's resignation letter here for your full daily allowance of woe-is-me-ness.  Unfortunately you won't read anything about the teens themselves...but what do you expect?  They're more or less bit characters at this point.

UPDATE: it seems that the resignation letter on the Gloucester Times website has been password protected...we'll keep looking for a readable copy and repost when available. 

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 24 hours, you now know that several students from a high school in Gloucester, MA  apparently made a pact to become pregnant and raise their babies together. This news broke the very same day that 17-year old actress Jamie Lynn Spears gave birth to a baby girl.  Needless to say, these two events have  focused national attention on the issue of teen and unplanned pregnancy.

So, what do we think?  See below:

1.  Gloucester High Teens: selected press clips, resources for parents and educators, and other pertinent links, and a recent Pregnant Pause post on this issue

2.  Jamie Lynn Spears: The National Campaign statement, selected press clips, and resources for parents and educators

UPDATE:

Sarah Brown on the CBS Early Show, June 23rd

Also, check out The National Campaign's fearless leader Sarah Brown on the June 20th edition of The Today Show:

Keep an eye on TheNationalCampaign.org for up-to-date info on these and other stories.

Bill's post on Straight Edge got me thinking about abstinence and what it means to declare yourself a "Virgin" (you can almost hear the capital letter 'V').  I was a student at an all-girls, Catholic high school.  It was a wonderful academic environment and - contrary to what you might have heard - we had regular dances and social events, shared with the neighboring all boys' Catholic high school. 

With this proximity to (gasp!) the opposite sex AND a rigorous dedication to creating a sheltered...goody-goody...parochial  secondary education experience, one might assume that the administration would have jumped at the chance to present its captive audience of impressionable young girls with the chance to sign a virginity pledge.