Teen forum will discuss high pregnancy rate
Lolita Harper
COSTA MESA -- Efforts made to combat teen pregnancy by city officials,
parents, school board members, nonprofit groups and adults of all sorts
are an integral part of the prevention process.
But who better to explore the issue than teens, themselves?
A group of concerned Costa Mesa teens will host a community forum
called “Teens Deal With Teen Pregnancy Issues: Communicate With Them” on
Friday night at the Costa Mesa Senior Center. The teen advocates, who are
members of Speak Out!, part of Camp Fire USA Orange County, are inviting
anyone and everyone to discuss the disturbing number of teen births in
Costa Mesa.
“The forum is to unite Costa Mesa community members who normally
wouldn’t get together to talk about how to prevent teen pregnancies,”
said Priya Runyon, a Speak Out! program coordinator. “The teens want to
present a united front in combating the problem and get a pulse on what
the community thinks about prevention methods.”
The group has invited clergy members, police officers, city officials,
parents, teenagers, grandparents -- virtually anyone in Costa Mesa who
wants to contribute.
High teen pregnancy rates affect more than just the young mothers and
their babies, Runyon said. It affects the quality of life for the entire
city.
Mayor Linda Dixon reached the same conclusion after an earlier forum
on teen pregnancy rates hosted by Planned Parenthood of Orange County and
San Bernardino. Dixon proposed the city offer a venue for teens and
parents to communicate with each other.
Dixon said Tuesday she supported the teens’ effort to bring the
community together and regretted she could not be there because she is
performing in the Children’s Hospital of Orange County Follies show.
“More power to them,” Dixon said. “I’ll be interested to see how it
turns out.”
Kimberly Custer, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Orange County
and San Bernardino, said representatives from her organization will
participate.
“All of our programs focus on reducing teen pregnancies. That is our
priority,” Custer said. “Costa Mesa has an incredibly high rate of teen
births, and it would make sense that we have a presence there to promote
comprehensive sex education.”
Newport-Mesa Unified School District trustee Wendy Leece was critical
of the forum and views it as an attempt to alter sex education in the
schools.
“I just wonder if the people that are putting on the forum have read
the state law, which, as far as I recall, does dictate how sex education
should be taught in our public schools,” Leece said. “It’s very
definitive, very clear.”
Leece did not confirm whether she would attend.
Studies by the California Department of Health Services identified the
southern region of the city as a teen pregnancy “hot spot.” Research --
which broke down its study areas by ZIP Code -- found 92627 to have more
than twice the number of teen pregnancies than the county average.
The study, which researched pregnancies for young women ages 15 to 19
in 2000, showed the southern region of Costa Mesa had 91 pregnant teen
mothers per 1,000 teenage girls. The average for Orange County is 42; the
state average is 48.1.
The other Costa Mesa ZIP Code area studied was 92626. The study found
that area to have 24 teen pregnancies per 1,000, which is well below the
county and state averages.
FYI
What: Community Forum, “Teens Deal With Teen Pregnancy Issues:
Communicate With Them”
When: 6 to 9 p.m. Friday
Where: Costa Mesa Senior Center, 695 W. 19th St.
Information: (714) 838-9991
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