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case in Rappahannock where a minor boy had been made to pay child support, but she agreed with Mrs. Sharp that “the state frowns on babies who are unsupported. A minor girl can ask for assistance for her baby, and we would pursue support.
“The majority of kids are sexually active and active at an earlier age,” she said. “Parents don’t realize their kids are growing up in an entirely different world. The media influences are very different.”
She noted, “It is the nature of teenagers to think they are immune. I’m concerned that education can’t cut through that.”
Mrs. Bowen said she agrees that students need information at an earlier age. “I think it is good Joyce Brown brought this out, to help people face the situation head on instead of hoping it will go away. I worry about these kids; I really do,” she said.
Linda Mock and Bob Treanor work with Family Guidance Services and also work in the schools. They conduct single sex discussion groups that deal with handling stressi with students in both the high school and elementary' school. They are expected not to deal with sexual issues that are covered in the Family Life Curriculum. Funding for their program in the schools comes from grants for preventing substance abuse.
“You can’t talk with adolescents for 30 seconds w ithout sex coming up,” Mrs. Mock said. “How to field that is a challenge to us.” She said they try to stress decision making and problem solving skills that can be applied to a variety of situations.
“With as many kids as appear to be sexually active, it is difficult,” she said. “I hear things that are just like when 1 was growing up. Girls feel if they plan and take precautions, that makes it wrong, but it is OK if they just get carried away.”
Mr. Treanor added, “Socially there are not the prohibitions against sex there used to be, so wre are having a lot more kids experimenting with sex. Within the school system, with a number of kids it’s OK to have sex and they’re expected to have sex. A lot get involved sexualy who emotionally don’t have the skills to deal with it.
The younger you start, the more damage it does, and the more chances to become pregnant. Contraception is just one of the problems. There is the sense of selfworth, relationships with the opposite sex from then on, how to dress and how to comport themselves.”
Mr. Treanor said many fathers who have hugged their daughters
See Family, Page A-7
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