Myrna Villa

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They stopped playing with dolls to take care of real babies.

Scattered cases of pregnancy among elementary and middle school girls have been registered in the region.

According to Federación Mexicana de Asociaciones Privadas [Mexican Federation of Private Associations] (FEMAP) and Salud y Desarrollo Comunitario de Cd. Juárez [Health and Community Development of Ciudad Juárez] (SADEC) statistics, girls engaged in sexual intercourse at 11 years old since 1999.

Due to high teen-pregnancy rates, Chihuahua State Government implemented a program to support pregnant teenagers in Cd. Juárez.

Apoyo a Estudiantes Embarazadas [Support for Pregnant Students] program has provided monthly scholarships to 11 girls residing in Cd. Juárez to continue their elementary and middle school education, respectively. Two of these recipients are less than 11 years old enrolled in elementary school.

“What they [kids] do now is not what we used to do twenty years ago,” said Planned Parenthood El Paso’s Project Coordinator Rebecca Manriquez.

Texas Department of State Health Services statistics highlight 170 pregnancies among White girls ranging from nine to 14 years old, and 791 among Hispanic same-aged girls in the year 2002. Moreover, 104 births were registered among White girls, and 670 among Hispanic girls in the same year.

According to Texas law, the state requires appropriate programs to educate elementary and middle school kids with sexual topics.

“These programs emphasize abstinence as the only contraceptive method,” said Manriquez. She also added the Abstinence – Only Education project has been designed to “delay sexual intercourse as much as possible.”

The Abstinence-Only Education project has offered orientation to fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth-graders about self-steam, physical changes due to puberty, and communication to their parents. It also, offers parenting classes to teach parents how to approach sexual topics and improve communication with their children.

Parents should provide accurate information about sexually appropriate for children’s age.

“I gave her [9-year old daughter] a book about becoming a woman, and I read the book beforehand to make sure it was appropriate for her age, so she will understand the vocabulary,” said Linda Garza, mother of a 9 and 6 year-old girls.

“Schools are not responsible to teach moral behaviors, it’s up to the parents,” Garza added.

“First is to support family, so the family can provide information, transmit values, and communicate with their kids,” said Paso del Norte Health Foundation’s Program Officer Michael Kelly.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), children experience pressure to have sexual intercourse from different sources, such as the media, peers, and the body itself while discovering sexuality.

“Biologically a woman commences menarche (the first menstrual period) at an earlier age now days. This has been linked greatly to the influence of nutrition on hormonal development,” said Laura R. Escobar, nurse with experience in pre and post-natal education at Las Palmas Medical Center.

Escobar explained parents need the tools and the guidance on how to approach sexual topics appropriate for the children’s psychosocial development.

Parents and schoolastic system have a shared responsibility.

“As a parent you must be proactive instead of reactive with your child's education and environment,” added Escobar.

The term proactive implies the parent’s involvement with their kids’ education in school.

Some parents are not well informed, too busy, or not interested to get involved with their children sexual education.

“Reactive is getting upset because you found out about a sex –ed class that you did not agree with the content after they asked you to sign a permit slip,” Escobar concluded.