Imagine you are the parent of a young teenage girl and she comes home to tell you that she is now pregnant, or can -maybe you have a son who contracted HIV, perhaps you even know a young child who was abused by a loved one. This teenager will now have to face the consequences of these events for the rest of his life, consequences that could have been avoided if these teenagers had received adequate sex education. For many, sex education is a sensitive subject and, as a result, students are not provided with essential information that can help them protect themselves. This allows students to make poor decisions about their sex lives that can negatively impact the rest of their lives. Since parents do not always provide the truth or sufficient information about sexuality, the best solution is to make sex education classes mandatory in schools. These lessons should begin in primary school and continue through adolescence and they should all have a clear and consistent message. Lack of sex education can lead to many negative effects that could ruin a teenager's life. One of the main negative effects is teenage pregnancy, which has negative consequences for the teenager, the baby and the economy. In 2003, 4 out of 10 teenage girls became pregnant before the age of 20. The United States has the highest rate of teen pregnancy, with more than 900,000 teen pregnancies per year. Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are also a common negative effect. According to the CDC, in 2004, chlamydia was diagnosed 929,462 times, gonorrhea 330,132 times, syphilis was diagnosed approximately 8,000 times, hepatitis B was diagnosed 60,000 times, and it is estimated that approximately one adolescent and one in five adults have been diagnosed with the disease. genital herpes infection. ...... middle of paper ......ce&tabID=T010&sgCurrentPosition=0&subjectAction=DISPLAY_SUBJECTS&prodId=OVRC&searchId=R10¤tPosition=11&userGroupName=bela83282&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&sgHitCountType=None&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%2 9%3AFQE% 3D %28SU%2CNone%2C15%29%22Sex+education%22%24&inPS=true&searchType=BasicSearchForm&displaySubject=&docId=EJ3010066219&docType=GSRChttp://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/retrieve.do?subjectParam=Locale%2528en%252C% 252C %2529%253AFQE%253D%2528su%252CNone%252C15%2529%2522Sex%2Beducation%2522%2524&contentSet=GSRC&sort=Relevance&tabID=T010&sgCurrentPosition=0&subjectAction=DISPLAY_SUBJECTS&prodId=OVRC&searchId =R10¤tPosition=18&userGroupName=bela83282&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&sgHitCountType=None&qrySerId=Locale% 28en %2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28SU%2CNone%2C15%29%22Sex+education%22%24&inPS=true&searchType=BasicSearchForm&displaySubject=&docId=EJ3010191234&docType=GSRC