Lavelle, who also is a Nationally Certified Abstinence Education Provider, says, “Many teens are committing to abstinence, which is great, but teen pregnancy is still the number one reason that teen girls are admitted to the hospital, and the number one reason that teenage girls drop out of high school.”

She says pregnancy is actually one of the least scary things facing kids today. “STD’s are rampant. There are two new strains of HIV that turn into full blown AIDS in a year. There are over 100 strains of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), some of which are resistant to drugs.”

She says the recent commercials encouraging girls to get vaccinated so that they will be “One Less” statistic are not telling the whole story, since the HPV vaccine only protects against a few strains of the virus.

“The commercials don’t even say that HPV is a sexually transmitted disease!” says Lavelle,.”What these kids need is good information.”

Part of that information she says, is the fact that “HPV is spread from skin to skin contact, and a condom won’t stop that.”

The American Social Health Association says that up to 15% of sexually active teenage women are infected with the human papilloma virus, many of them the type that is linked to cervical cancer.

Lavelle says many people seem to laugh off Abstinence Based Education, assuming that most kids are going to “do it anyway.” She says that she tells kids, “You can say no to drugs, and alcohol and smoking. I know you can exercise self control in this area of your life too.”

“Teens deserve to know that they have another choice,” says Lavelle. She says the first source of information should be the parents, but she’s seen that parents are often out of touch with their kids. “They grew up in a different day, and they don’t understand how dangerous it is for their kids sexually in this day and age.”

Lavelle says, “Sex has become a sport to teenagers. Teen sexuality has nothing to do with intimacy and respect and most of the time, they’re not taught that it is about those things.”

Lavelle speaks in school assemblies all over the region, and says she’s “heard it all.” But she says she’s shocked to see how poorly some of these teens are educated when it comes to sexuality.

Lavelle says she spoke with a physical education teacher after an assembly, who asked where she can get more of the STD information for her class, because she’d never heard a lot of the facts that Lavelle presented.

“This is a health teacher. She should have access to this information, so that these kids can be informed,” says Lavelle.

Lavelle says she’s talking to kids on their level. She’s been there. “I know what it’s like to be sexually active as a teenager, and then to have to suffer consequences from that for the rest of my life. These kids need to know about the consequences. Our culture is just teaching them the mechanics of sex, not healthy sexuality.”

She says it’s not just the physical consequences that aren’t made clear. “They don’t learn anything about bonding, and emotional involvement. They don’t understand that they have value beyond sex. We want them to understand that this generation is priceless and valuable. After I speak at these assemblies, kids come up to me and say that they’ve never had anyone tell them they are important and valuable to their generation. They don’t know the kind of difference they can make in the world.”

“We need for this generation to understand that seeing sex as something sacred and holy, to be set apart for a lifelong commitment is a good thing. Statistically, people who are in committed married relationships are wealthier, healthier, happier,” says Lavelle.

Lavelle will be speaking at Open Arms Community Church Saturday Night at 7:30PM as Open Arms presents “Simply Sex for Teens”. The event is open for anyone, teens and parents are encouraged to attend.

Open Arms is also conducting a Ipod giveway that evening.

For more information, log on to openarmsbradford.org