The Buffalo News/Everybody's Column

Response to "Teen Sex Begins at Home" printed in 9/26 edition

The September 26 Associated Press article about teens engaging in nighttime sex in their parents' homes cast light on an important issue. However, the story left out a critical part of the larger picture that I believe needs attention. The article failed to mention that this statistic was for older teens between 16 and 18 years old. For the AP writer to state that this new evidence "dispels myths" that teens are most often having sex after school is misleading.

As the director of support services for the Buffalo Federation of Neighborhood Centers' Buffalo Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Services program, I supervise case managers who work directly with teens in several Buffalo Public Schools. Our experience confirms that teens are engaging in a host of risky behaviors (e.g. oral sex, drinking, smoking cigarettes or marijuana, etc.) before, after, and during school hours. Just ask your local middle school guidance counselor and I'm confident his/her story will echo our statistics.

The need for after school programming for "tween-ers" is well documented. There are also myriad recent studies confirming that parents' (especially mothers') values and beliefs about teenage sexual activity strongly influence their children's decisions to remain abstinent. These expectations are conveyed by not only talking with their children (and often), but also knowing who their friends are, knowing their whereabouts, and having clear and consistent rules and expectations. In short...by being a responsible parent.

Deborah Peterson, Buffalo