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New Hope Baptist last fall received a federal grant of $3 million - $600,000 annually over five years
Church Offers Abstinence Lessons to Public School Students
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - Midway through a classroom discussion of sexually transmitted diseases, one seventh-grader at Center Street Middle School raised her hand to ask a question.
So what's the difference between gonorrhea and chlamydia?" the 12-year-old girl said.
Kelli Clarke, a facilitator for New Hope Baptist Church's Birmingham Abstinence Education Program, went to consult a reference text.
"It's very hard to tell the difference," said Clarke, whose father is New Hope's pastor, Gregory Clarke. "The symptoms are pretty much the same."
The hourlong discussion of STDs and birth control sounded very much like a typical public school health class, but with a notable difference. It's run by a Baptist church.
New Hope Baptist last fall received a federal grant of $3 million - $600,000 annually over five years - for its Outreach Ministries program to teach abstinence to students from middle school through high school in Birmingham city schools.
It's part of the trend toward allowing faith-based organizations to apply for federal grants to administer community programs. The grant came from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
The classroom instruction began in January and has been done at West End High School and Center Street Middle School. A team of facilitators goes into each school and teaches a classroom of students each period. The classes last two weeks, then they move on to the next school.
The church-run program follows guidelines already being used in Alabama public schools.
"The only difference is it's a faith-based organization," said Crystal Spivey, director of the Birmingham Abstinence Education Program. "It doesn't mean there's an opportunity to inject religion. We have to meet the same guidelines as anyone else providing social services."
For nine years, Alabama has participated in a federal abstinence program, say state officials who credit such classes with helping reduce teen pregnancy.
There's nothing wrong with a church teaching the abstinence program "as long as they are following the content guidelines for each grade," said Michael Sibley, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Education.
"In a lot of communities, they would be the entity that can go through doors," said Dr. Tom Miller, an obstetrician who serves as assistant state health officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health.
"The one thing that has to be taught is abstinence, according to the Alabama Course of Study for Health Education," Sibley said. "They have to include abstinence as an option."
There were 7,903 babies born to teens in 2005, a drop from 8,259 in 2004. That continues a decade of overall decline, with 2004 the only year since 1994 to see an increase in teen births.
Spivey said the church's program is consistent with what the state requires.
The program does not mention God or the Bible.
"That's strictly prohibited," Spivey said. "We cannot inject any religious activity. It's based on the curriculum itself."
Spivey, who has a doctorate in maternal and child health care from UAB, said she knows some experts think the schools should be instructing teens how to put on condoms.
This program doesn't do that, but it doesn't avoid the subject, either, she said.
Jamica Bolton, assistant director of the program, said there is open discussion of contraceptives.
"We don't promote it," she said. "We don't tell them not to."
During classes, children watch videos that feature interviews with teen parents and follow along in a study guide from the "Choosing the Best" curriculum that is standard in many Alabama public school classrooms.
"We just provide them the facts and encourage them to make the best choices," Bolton said.
New Hope's program includes workshops for parents, who learn much of the same material about STDs and birth control that their children are being taught.
"The schools have been receptive, and the parents have been as well," Bolton said.
Spivey said more than 8,700 students a year will go through the program, which includes West End, Carver and Jackson-Olin high schools and all the middle schools that feed into them.
"One of the consequences of having sex is you can become a teenage mother," Tracy Harris, one of the facilitators, said after the class watched a video interview of teen parents.
That led to a discussion of the costs and responsibilities of raising a baby.
"They cry, they sleep, they eat; what else?" Harris asked.
"You have to pay for day care," one girl offered.
"You have to show the baby love," said Adam Knox, 13.
Clarke and Harris described the symptoms and treatment of the most common of more than 25 sexually transmitted diseases and other consequences of risky sexual behavior.
"For any of the viral STDs, there is no cure," Clarke said.
Students took turns reading facts aloud from the textbook.
The instructors discussed the drawbacks of various birth-control methods, noting that none is 100 percent effective.
"There's no guarantee you won't get pregnant if you use a condom," Harris said.
The regular classroom teacher, Keisha Cooper-Owens, said the week of daily sex education classes seemed to make an impression on students.
"I hear them talking about it after class," she said.
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