CATS talk abstinance

Valerie Berisford, “Concern About Teen Sexuality” (CATS) Coordinator and Heidi Porter, Guernsey County Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coordinator spoke to the Lions Club about the problems facing teenagers in our local counties. Valerie brought 10 senior CATS students with her and they performed a typical type of skit that they present to middle school and high school students throughout our surrounding local high schools promoting abstinence from sex and also drugs and alcohol. Valerie explained that one of the best outcomes of the CATS program is that students will listen to other students in this subject area much better than they will to other adults. Statistics show that 1 in 4 sexually active teenagers will have at least 1 sexually transmitted disease with over 69 million teenagers with STD’s in the United States. Every 31 seconds a teenage girl gets pregnant in the United States. Heidi said her program promotes goal setting and more importantly, decision making skills. Right now there is a big crisis in the number of girls in Guernsey County that want to have a baby. The sad reason is that they want a child because they feel it is the only one that will love them. The good news is that only 2% of parents who talk with their teenagers on a regular basis about sex and these type of problems ever have to deal with teenage pregnancies. The students and the coordinators answered questions from Lion members at the conclusion.