Newspaper Page Text
June 20 2018
Page 7C
^Reporter
Exchange Club of Forsyth works for community
Nolen Howard, Chairman of the Monroe Coun
ty Board of Education, spoke to the Forsyth
Exchange Club and detailed the job respon
sibilities of the board members. He brought
with him a copy of a graduation program from
1909. Pictured are Howard, left, and William
Roquemore.
Jan Murphy with the Monroe County Sheriff s Office
CARE Cottage spoke to the Forsyth Exchange Club
about the work that they do at the Care Cottage to
try to stop and prevent child abuse. The club presented
Ms. Murphy with a check for $500 to help in their
efforts to prevent abuse and to care for the victims.
Pictured are Murphy, left, and Tommy Woodward.
On April 26 State President Sidney Blanton
spoke to the Forsyth Exchange Club about the
upcoming convention and encouraged mem
bers to attend. Pictured are Blanton, right, and
William Roquemore.
Pregnancy Center explains school sex education program
By Diane Glidewell
news@mymcr.net
Monroe County Library
is offering a workshop for
parents every Thursday
evening in June about
talking with their children
about sex. It is geared
toward getting discussions
started and providing help
with answering specific
questions. The workshop
arose from discussion at
the May Family Connec
tion meeting about sex
education given in Mon
roe County Schools and a
Health Department North
Central District initiative to
provide additional infor
mation.
“We stuck our neck
out,” said Monroe County
Library Manager Kimberly
Clayton. “The library is a
neutral zone, and we have
the staff to have the kids
in another room.... The
library doesn’t censor infor
mation. We can be the area
where they can come. We
can have books, programs,
different ways to get out
information.”
At first the idea was to
bring some of the Health
Department programs
for students to the library,
but it was decided instead
to try having programs
for parents. These are
provided by the Monroe
County Pregnancy Center,
which also coordinates the
abstinence-based “Choos
ing the Best” curriculum
that is used in grades 6-12
at Monroe County Schools.
Clayton said she was
afraid no one would come,
but at the first program on
June 7 there were four indi
viduals from the commu
nity plus those invited by
the Pregnancy Center for a
total of 13 people. Plans are
to continue the programs
on Mondays in July and to
live stream the July pro
grams. The meetings are in
the library meeting room
but will move to Monroe
County Clubhouse if they
become large enough. Brit
ney Stewart of the Health
Department district will
attend and have literature
available.
Dawnita Moore, Mov-
ene Futch and Diane Fort
spoke at the June 12 Family
Connection meeting about
the Pregnancy Center,
Choosing the Best and the
sex education program in
Monroe County Schools.
Moore said the mission of
the Pregnancy Center is
to uphold the sanctity of
human life, which includes
teaching parents how to
build strong foundations
for raising children. The
Pregnancy Center has
classes and counseling for
women, men and couples.
Some are referred from
agencies like the Depart
ment of Family & Children
Services and others just
come in because they want
to get it right.
The Pregnancy Center
has been partnering with
Monroe County Schools
to teach “Choosing the
Best” for 19 years. Moore,
who became director of the
Center this year, had her
first chance to teach in the
program this spring. She
taught 8th grade girls for
eight days. The program
addressed self respect,
hormones, STDs, sexting,
contraceptives, choices and
relationships.
“They are all in and very
smart,” said Moore. “We
discussed setting boundar
ies before getting into situ
ations. It takes discipline to
make a healthy choice.”
Futch has worked with
the Choosing the Best
program since it was imple
mented in Monroe County
and described herself as
“the fossil in this.” She said
that she has some problems
with the data used by the
Health Department district
to say that teen preg
nancy rates are a problem
in Monroe County. The
most recent data available
is always two years old,
and teen births include 18
and 19-year-olds, some of
whom are married.
“It is offensive and painful
to us to have such attacks
against a program we have
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Left to right, Diane Fort, Movene Futch, Dawnita Moore spoke to Monroe County Family Connection about the Choosing
the Best curriculum that Monroe County Pregnancy Center coordinates in Monroe County schools.
invested in since 1999,” said
Futch. “We are only behind
Jones County in the North
Central Health District.”
She said there are two ap
proaches in sex education:
sexual risk reduction and
sexual risk avoidance.
“You can stop a preg
nancy but cannot easily fix
a broken heart,” she said.
“ We seek to teach, reach
how students think about
sex... We seek to develop
a mindset. Sex is a good
thing, done in a long-term
relationship with a mutu
ally respectful partner.”
Futch said the message
of Choosing the Best is to
save sex for a special time
in your life, although that
is not the message usually
presented in media and
the general public. Hav
ing a child means caring
more about the child than
one’s self. She said there are
over 25 different STD’s; the
bacterial ones can be cured,
but the viral ones, like
herpes, can’t. Then there
is the brain activity that
occurs with sex to set off
hormones and emotional
and chemical bonding. She
said the saying is, “If he’s
ever been in your body, he’s
in your head,” and the brain
gets very confused.
Futch said the biggest
criticism of Choosing the
Best is that it does not push
contraception. She said
that Choosing the Best
does give information on
contraception but also tells
students that chemical con
traceptives have side effects
and that condoms do not
prevent all STDs.
Asked if Choosing the
Best has programs for male
students, Futch said that
there are separate classes
for boys and girls in 6th,
7th and 8th grade and co
ed classes in 9th through
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12th grade. She said in the
last few years they have
added an excellent pro
gram on pornography in
the 10th grade. The District
Attorney teaches a program
at the high school on sex
and violence. At the middle
school level, men teach the
boys and women teach the
girls.
Fort told the audience of
adults that what they did
in high school is now done
in middle school and what
they did in middle school
is now done in elementary
school.
“Even pre-K and kinder
garteners are exposed to
sexual materials,” said Ford.
“If you’re waiting [to talk to
your children about sex],
you’re too late.”
Lisa Lee, outgoing chair
of Family Connections,
said that one thing she
liked about the Choosing
the Best Program was that
it includes homework that
involves parents. She said it
was a little uncomfortable
sometimes when her son
went through the classes,
but it opened conversa
tions.
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