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Show I Davis School Board approves sex survey in six high schools j By DONETA GATHERUM : FARM1NGTON Students in Davis County high schools will participate par-ticipate in the Governor's Task Force to Prevent Teenage Pregnan- cy Survey. : Tuesday evening the Davis Board of Education granted per mission for the survey work to be conducted in the county. The vote was 3 to 2 in favor with board members mem-bers Sheryl Allen, Henry Heath and Ray Briscoe supporting the survey and board members Bob Thurgood and Louenda Downs voting against the survey issue. The board meeting room was nearly filled with patrons, most voicing opposition to allowing the Task Force survey to be used in the county high schools. The decision on this emotional issue was delayed for two weeks to allow more public input. The board originally discussed the question at the Oct. 21 meeting which was held at West Clinton Elementary School in conjunction with the school's dedication. de-dication. Board Member Heath recommended re-commended tabling the final vote until more information could be gathered and until the meeting could be held in the larger administration adminis-tration building auditorium. Supt. Richard Kendell set up some guidelines which the board approved that will govern the administration admi-nistration of this survey. First, student stu-dent and parental written permission permis-sion will be obtained before any survey will be given. Second, the results will be kept in strict confidence. confi-dence. Third, all survey work will be done outside the school day by people not associated with the school professional staff. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Sex survey approved by Davis School Board teenagers 15 through 19 in Davis County in 1986. Mrs. Trenbeth concluded, "We have a problem and lack of knowledge know-ledge is an important contributing factor to teenage pregnancy. I support sup-port the survey." Patron comments included most of the points brought up at the earlier ear-lier meeting. There was concern about ab-out the benefits of the survey to the young taking it, the honesty of the answers, the embarrassment the questions might cause and the validity of a survey that doesn't get responses from everybody. Some feared the information would be used to establish a "need" and eventually Utah would have education programs teaching pregnancy prevention rather than chastity and abstinence. Some wanted to by-pass the survey sur-vey and start programs of teaching chastity in the home and the schools now. One woman stated, "We can't control the outcome of the survey." sur-vey." Her reasoning was that the results would be widely published in Utah and elsewhere and this would be harmful. She felt the survey sur-vey was a personal invasion of privacy. pri-vacy. Other patrons feared the intrusion intru-sion of federal dollars and programs and "Planned Parenthood"-style programs would be placed in the schools. Gloria Taylor, co-president of the Davis High School PTA, said her PTA board was equally divided regarding the use of the survey in Davis High School. "The biggest question is what will you do with the information? It is good if it is used to help the parents in the-home. the-home. It is bad if it is used to de-velop de-velop a program for schools," she stated. After the comments and questions ques-tions from patrons session that lasted about one hour, the board members took turns expressing their views. Bob Thurgood noted the number of people opposing the survey. He said he would listen to what they were saying. "We don't need a survey. sur-vey. We do need to teach chastity and morality in school," he said. Louenda Downs said she talked to many parents and professional people. Her conclusion was that the survey wasn't well-written and not helpful. Board President Sheryl Allen supported the survey. She reasoned that the survey puts the choice in the hands of individual parents. "It can provide teaching moments in the home with the parents pa-rents and children," she claimed. Henry Heath also supported the survey. He agreed that sex educa-: tion should be the responsibility of the family and should be taught 4 with reverence. "Unfortunately, it .z is not being done. I feel the Task J Force is objective and professional. They do need data. Information they gather is better than what we have. The survey will give us an instrument to teach abstinence," which is the only effective program," prog-ram," Mr. Heath said. Dr. Ray Briscoe said, "Surveys ; do not cause behavior." He made the motion to allow the survey in all : high schools with 20 students parti- " cipating in each school. . CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE Board member Ray Briscoe, who made the motion to allow the survey, sur-vey, suggested one other recommendation recom-mendation that received board approval. The survey will be given to 20 students in each high school rather than 120 students in one high school as was proposed by the Task Force members. Dr. Briscoe recommended re-commended that women be used to administer the test because he believes be-lieves students feel more comfortable comfort-able with women than with men. Tuesday's meeting in many ways was a repeat of the earlier discussion. discus-sion. Supt. Kendell recommended allowing the survey. Patrons spoke for 1 Vi minutes each either in support sup-port or against the survey with the vast majority going against the survey sur-vey and board members responded before a vote was taken. Tuesday, Dr. Kendell gave some time to Joseph Olsen, a member of the Task Force that developed the survey. Mr. Olsen is a member of the family studies staff at BYU and a special consultant hired by the Task Force to develop the survey. Dr. Kendell explained the rationale behind the survey was to collect information. It was not to be a teaching tool and it would not take responsibility away from anyone, The superintendent again stated the guidelines of permission, confidentiality confiden-tiality and being given outside the school day. He concluded his remarks re-marks by stating, "Problems can be solved if we have knowledge. This is not a sex education program in our schools. The survey would give us knowledge which is our ally." Mr. Olsen explained the Task Force was formed by the State Department De-partment of Health, Social Services and Education about eight months ago. It is a two-year project working work-ing on a $75,000 budget appropriated appropri-ated by the State Legislature. The survey is only a small part of the entire project. Dr. Chris Wallace of BYU was the other consultant who prepared the survey. Both have extensive ex-tensive credentials in teen pregnancy pre-gnancy research and survey preparation. prepa-ration. There are three subcommittees within the Task Force, trends and patterns, contributing factors and programs. Mr. Olsen said there is a need for current, reliable, accurate, local information in-formation that can be used by the Task Force to "develop a response program in the state." He explained the survey will be given in 20 high schools to 75-100 students in each school. There would be complete anonymity and Df students in alternative programs rents would be needed before any survey would be taken. Mr. Olsen said an over-sampling of students in alternative programs such as parenting schools has been taken to give balance to the regular high school survey work. All surveys sur-veys would be done in small groups where the students were isolated in small booths such as are found in libraries and language labs. Students Stu-dents would start together and all remain until dismissed. Stressing the need for a Utah survey, sur-vey, Mr. Olsen said there was information infor-mation lacking in national literature, litera-ture, especially the purposes kids have for abstaining from sex and the ways kids insulate themselves against getting involved sexually. He also said there is little information informa-tion about the early stages of socialization that eventually leads to teen pregancies. "The purpose is data gathering, not instruction," Mr. Olsen concluded. Mrs. Lynn Trenbeth, home economics eco-nomics supervisor and former director of the District Parenting School, presented the board with some district pregnancy and parenting teens statistics. They showed that in 1985-86 the district program served 139 girls. This number increased to 190 in the 1986-87 school year. As of Nov. 2, 1987, 76 girls have been served by the district program this school year and nine new girls will register for the second term. State Health Department information infor-mation shows there were three induced in-duced abortions for teenage women under 15 in Davis County in 1986 and 112 induced abortions for teenage women 15-19 in the county in 1986. This same source recorded two live births to teenagers teena-gers under 15 and 307 live births to |