RES 258 Draft 01 2010-2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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........... COUNTY OF HAWAII -+_�� /�•` STATE OF HAWAII Ot OF.4.0 •RESOLUTION NO. 258 12 A RESOLUTION URGING THE STATE LEGISLATURE TO ENACT LEGISLATION DIRECTING THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO INCREASE PROGRAMS IN SEX EDUCATION. WHEREAS, In the State of Hawaii, statistics show that 84 out of 1,000 teenage girls become pregnant each year, with only nine states ranking higher; and WHEREAS, Fifty-two percent of sexually active teens in Hawaii said they did not use a condom the last time they had sex; and WHEREAS, Polls show that forty-four percent of Hawai`i teens are sexually active; and WHEREAS, Teens who become pregnant are less likely to graduate from high school, with only 32 percent of teen mothers obtaining a diploma by the age of 30; and WHEREAS, Teen parents and their children are more likely to be single parents, be subject to a reduced quality of life and need welfare assistance; and WHEREAS, Children of teen parents are more likely to develop physical and mental health problems such as low birth weight and mental disabilities; and WHEREAS, Children of teen parents are more likely to be victims of abuse and neglect, resulting in at-risk behavior, including entering into lives of crime, drugs and low academic achievement; and WHEREAS, As a result of these combined factors, many children of teen parents may be placed into foster care; and WHEREAS, It is a well-known and documented fact that in countries where sex and sexual education are less inhibited, safe sex and birth control methods are more appropriately applied and abortion and unwanted pregnancy is less prevalent; and WHEREAS, According to Nobel Prize winning philosopher and sociologist Bertrand Russell, the general public must"I am convinced that complete openness on sexual subjects is the best way to prevent children from thinking about them excessively, nastily or unwholesomely, and also the almost indispensable preliminary to an enlightened sexual morality;" now, therefore,