Teen Straight Talk program teaches abstinence at schools

By ASHLEY LUTHERN

The nonprofit program was founded 20 years ago and has taken its message of abstinence to more than 50 area schools.

VIENNA — Teen Straight Talk representatives can sum up their mission in one word: Abstinence.

“Youngsters get confused because of mixed messages,” said Ted Smith, program leader for Teen Straight Talk. “People will tell them, ‘We don’t want you to do it, but if you do, protect yourself.’ That’s why we say total abstinence from sex.”

The Vienna-based nonprofit organization was founded 20 years ago by former Warren teacher Mary Duke and since then has delivered its message of abstinence to more than 50 area schools.

Ohio law requires public schools to stress to students that abstinence is the only way to avoid sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies and to emphasize abstinence from sexual activity until after marriage.

Leaders of Teen Straight Talk say the schools do more than emphasize abstinence.

“The schools have to please everybody, so they have mixed or comprehensive sex education,” Duke said. “Twenty years ago we had a more open audience to total abstinence, but now the other message is out front.”

Duke estimates that after hearing a Teen Straight Talk program, up to 90 percent of the students commit to staying abstinent until marriage, based on evaluations that are collected after every program.

“We’re underestimating these kids,” she said. “They want to know the truth that safe sex isn’t really safe and that it just reduces the risk.”

The programs that the organization presents highlight the failure rates of condoms, lifelong effects of getting a sexually transmitted infection, and the possible negative emotional consequences of sexual activity.

When presented outside of the public school systems, the rule of abstinence as a Christian principle is emphasized.

“We respect state property, but in other settings we can’t ignore that this is God’s law,” Duke said. “Which is ultimately why parents who have the greatest influence on their kids should be in charge of teaching them about sex, not the schools.”

Duke, herself a Christian, said that she was moved “by the [Holy] spirit to take God’s message of abstinence to as many teenagers as possible” and that’s what led to the founding of TST.

If teenagers who have heard the program’s presentation choose not to be abstinent, Duke isn’t discouraged.

“Once you put truth in these kids, they’ll make the right choices,” she said. “If they don’t, that’s not a failure of our program because they’ll still have the truth to make a right decision later.”