Anonymous wrote:Doing what? A lot of masturbating is what they're all doing.

The blindness of parents never ceases to amaze me. I’ve been observing it since circa 1970.

Anonymous wrote:
Good point.

This especially applies to girls today, who may fool around with each other a lot during a sleep over or camp or a slumber party.

But they aren’t having sex obviously.

This mirrors my experience. My first real fooling around was with other girls when we were 13-14. But by then I was well into my solo sex life for 4-5 years.

Doing what? A lot of masturbating is what they're all doing.

Anonymous wrote:They were 30 years ago, assume some 8th graders still are now. It's past time for the talk and some real facts about contraception.

Sex education and contraception should go hand in hand. I would never give a teen contraception without other relevant info. Research links relatively
high rates of teen pregnancies in US (compared to countries with similar overall Standards of living) to both lack of sex education and lack of access to contraceptives. Sex education results in delaying becoming sexually actively much better than preaching celibacy until marriage. One of life’s many ironies …

Anonymous wrote:When I was in 8th grade (1998) just a few things I remember:

-1 girl in my grade got pregnant
-1 boy/girl got expelled from school for getting caught having sex in a classroom during an after school activity
-I knew a girl who would give boys oral sex under the bleachers after school
-there was a basket of free condoms in each of the bathrooms

Yes, 8th graders are having sex.

Yes, they are, and parents still believe “maybe, but not my kid,” exactly as they were when I was 13 and we were all doing it. We still have reunions and they’re beautiful. No one I’ve ever met has ever regretted anything.

When I was in 8th grade (1998) just a few things I remember:

-1 girl in my grade got pregnant
-1 boy/girl got expelled from school for getting caught having sex in a classroom during an after school activity
-I knew a girl who would give boys oral sex under the bleachers after school
-there was a basket of free condoms in each of the bathrooms

Yes, 8th graders are having sex.

They were 30 years ago, assume some 8th graders still are now. It's past time for the talk and some real facts about contraception.

Some are for sure. The summer after 8th grade. I was SHOCKED. SHOCKED.

Right there on the elementary school playground equipment.

- recent encounter

No surprises here and likely to get worse with new sleight of anti abortion bills that tend to conflate contraception with abortion. They are is states that tend to not offer sex education as well.

Here are the 10 states with the highest teen birth rate:
1 Arkansas (30 per 100k)
2 Mississippi (29.1 per 100k)
3 Louisiana (27.8 per 100k)
4 Oklahoma (27.4 per 100k)
5 Alabama (25.6 per 100k)
6 West Virginia (25.2 per 100k)
7 Kentucky (24.9 per 100k)
8 New Mexico (24.4 per 100k)
9 Texas (24 per 100k)
10 Tennessee (23.7 per 100k)

Teen Pregnancy Rates by State 2022
The teen pregnancy rate in the United States has been declining in the past 20 years. In 2018, the United States teen birth rate was 17.4 births per 1,000 females between the ages 15 and 19. In 2019, it decreased to 16.9. Despite these lower rates, the U.S. continues to have the highest teen pregnancy rate of all developed nations.

One of the best ways to prevent teen pregnancies is using
birth control methods, such as condoms or oral contraceptives, and providing easy access to such things. Comprehensive sex education in and outside of schools has been proven to be very effective, and sex education courses must be given to all genders.

Research suggests that “U.S states whose residents have more conservative religious beliefs on average tend to have higher rates of teenagers giving birth.” Of the ten most conservatively religious states in the United States, eight are among the states with the highest teen birth rates.

2. Mississippi
Mississippi has the second-highest teen birth rate of 29.1 births per 1,000 women. This is an increase from 27.8 in 2018. The Arkansas-Mississippi Delta area has the highest birth rates, a study found, pointing to community norms and socioeconomic factors in the area that could compound to contribute to higher teen pregnancy rates, such as poverty, discrimination, lack of comprehensive sex education.

Louisiana’s birth rate of 27.8 births per 1,000 women is the third-highest in the country. About 75% of teen births in Louisiana are to mothers in their late teens (age 18 ad 19), and 18% of teen births were to teens who already have a child. Pediatrician Scott Hamilton explained that sec education isn’t a part of school systems, and it’s not something discussed at home with parents.

4. Oklahoma
Oklahoma’s teen birth rate is 27.4 births per 1,000 women, giving it the fourth-highest teen birth rate in the United States. In Oklahoma, 1-in-5 births to girls ages 15 through 19 is not the mother’s first child. One issue seen in the state is that some of the school districts, such as the Oklahoma City Public Schools, fail to provide sex education at any grade level.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t the incident of teen pregnancy going down?

*incidence

Maybe not in Mississippi and Texas …

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely. A lot of oral sex (for boys) as well

MS boys receiving oral sex skyrocketed ever since it was minimized by Bill Clinton years ago. No young people consider it to sex anymore.

Combine that with an increasing # of boys performing it on other boys today, and it’s easier to understand how common it is in 8th grade.

My girlfriend was in college in the 1990s and told about the wave of girls giving BJs when she was in Catholic girls school after Clinton declared that this was not sex.

Back in the early 1970s, I think relationships between male teachers and female students were much more common. No one went to jail for that that I ever knew of. There’s probably much less of that today.

Anonymous wrote:Definitely. A lot of oral sex (for boys) as well

MS boys receiving oral sex skyrocketed ever since it was minimized by Bill Clinton years ago. No young people consider it to sex anymore.

Combine that with an increasing # of boys performing it on other boys today, and it’s easier to understand how common it is in 8th grade.

Anonymous wrote:My 8th grader now 9th was doing it even during pandemic when seeing few people in person. Got away with hiding it for a while until caught. Now on birth control. Seems like I lot of them are

Wow!

Definitely. A lot of oral sex (for boys) as well