Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 12, 1990                   TAG: 9004120632
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SHED FEAR OF SEX, EDUCATE CHILDREN

If parents and assembly members have any compassion for young people, they should work hard to make sure every person is thoroughly educated about sex as soon as she or he is able to understand.

Currier says that fornication is unlawful in Virginia. This may be the case, but she cannot deny that, regardless of laws, even young people have sex. If she does not believe this, she should spend some time reading up on the number of teen-age pregnancies in America. If young folks knew how to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy, the tragedies of abortion and unwanted births would be greatly reduced, if not totally wiped out.

Parents who object to their children being in sex-education classes, for whatever reasons, should be required to educate their children at home. Every child should be able to pass a basic standardized test about how the human animal becomes pregnant, how venereal diseases, particularly AIDS, are spread and contracted, and how to avoid all of the above.

We are not going to keep our young people "safe from the sins of sex" (my quote, not Currier's) by keeping them ignorant. Instead, we are dooming them to having abortions and/or babies they are not ready to be good parents to, and to the possibility of contracting the deadly AIDS virus. We must discard our outmoded fear of sex and knowledge and educate and trust our children, to make them healthy, happy and, hopefully, responsible adults. PRIS SEARS BLACKSBURG