Another reason for abstinence

Abstinence is becoming the foremost lesson of sex education classes in the nation's schools for two reasons: Parents and educators have correctly concluded it's the only sure way to prevent pregnancies, and the spread of venereal diseases among teenagers.

Now they've got a third reason to promote abstinence: It keeps teens out of jail. Recent events in Columbia County drive that home.

Two 17-year-old Greenbrier High School boys were indicted on sexual assault charges, and will be tried as adults. A 16-year-old boy was charged with statutory rape. The three girls involved in the case - two 14-year-olds and a 15-year old - weren't spared the law's wrath either. At first thought to be victims, they were subsequently charged with fornication.

Juvenile Court Judge Doug Flanagan explained that a crime is a crime, and that includes sexual activity among young people. Sexual relations involving people under the age of consent - 16 or younger - automatically invites some type of criminal charges if the activities come to light.

Most young people probably weren't even aware of this law, so let this be a lesson to them. Georgia's laws were written to protect children from adult predators, but it gets tricky when the adults are 17 or 18 and the children are 14, 15 or 16.

That may be more of a Romeo and Juliet affair than a predatory situation. Yet, in some cases, such acts can result in a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. Every teen needs to know this. Every one of them.

The law, in effect, is trying to catch minnows in a net, but it's snaring a lot of other fish too - not all of them fairly. The teen years are a time when hormones explode and the young seek to experiment. It seems unfair to punish them for that, but neither does anyone want to loosen a law that could make children more vulnerable to adult predators.

It's a serious conundrum, but unless some clever legislator can rewrite the law to make it possible for authorities to distinguish between the Romeos and the predators, then the present law must prevail.

To remind teens of the risks they take when they break the law to have sex, perhaps girls' undergarments should bear a U.S. surgeon general's warning: "Sex can be dangerous to your health - and freedom."