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RALEIGH - Sex education as taught in most of North Carolina's public schools isn't working, says Rep. Alma Adams.

The Greensboro Democrat is one of the primary sponsors of a measure that would give parents the choice between two sex-education curriculums for their middle school students:

• One would be the current standard course, emphasizing abstinence until marriage, that the legislature prescribed in 1995.

• A more comprehensive approach relaying more information about disease and pregnancy prevention.

"There's just so much evidence that our kids do need to be informed," Adams said last week. "It's an issue I don't think we've addressed adequately."

Among the evidence Adams points to, statistics gathered by the state and local health departments show:

• In 2007, 404 girls age 14 and younger became pregnant in North Carolina, 28 of those in Guilford County.

• In 2007, 19,615 girls age 15-19 became pregnant in North Carolina, 1,008 of those in Guilford County.

• Although not specifically tied to teenagers, disease surveillance shows 2,356 new cases of HIV in North Carolina in 2006, 40 percent higher than the national average. Disease surveillance also shows recent upticks in STD infections such as chlamydia and gonorrhea.

Robin Bergeron-Nolan, director of Health Services for Guilford County Schools, said she has not seen the new legislation. She confirmed that Guilford County used the standard course of study that emphasizes abstinence.

"The feedback we've received from our parents is this community is happy with what we have," she said.

Under the legislative proposal, parents would chose whether their children receive the existing course of study or one that more broadly addresses sexuality. That new course would teach "about the effectiveness and safety of all FDA-approved" methods of preventing sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy.

The bill is a second attempt at overhauling the state's sex education curriculum first tried in 2007. Besides Adams, its sponsors include Rep. Susan Fisher of Buncombe County and Rep. Bob England, a doctor from Rutherford County.

As it did during that session, the effort it likely to run into opposition from social conservatives.

"We do think the implementation of this bill would take North Carolina in absolutely the wrong direction," said John Rustin, vice president of the North Carolina Family Policy Council, a nonprofit group whose mission statement says it is "preservation of the family and traditional family values."

Rustin points out that in the 14 years since the 1995 abstinence education law was passed, the teen birthrate in North Carolina has declined. The current curriculum, he said, should be able to take some credit for that drop, despite a recent increase.

"Authentic abstinence until marriage programs are actually quite comprehensive in the nature of the information they provide," Rustin said.

He compared the sex education policy to the schools' policies on drugs, alcohol and smoking. The schools, he said, do not teach kids who might be tempted to use those substances the different ways to ingest drugs and or avoid disease while smoking.

"Why in the world would our schools take a different approach with sex education?" he asked.

But others say the emphasis on abstinence is unrealistic.

"We all were interested in sex when we were young, and kids today are bombarded with far more sexual messages than we ever were," said Linda DeShazo, executive director of the Guilford County Coalition on Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention. "Kids are getting the information, just not in the correct format."

DeShazo pointed to statistics published by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, which show that New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey have the five lowest teen pregnancy rates in the country. Those states, she said, all offer comprehensive sex education curriculum to public school students.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com