Car crashes are the #1 cause of death among American teenagers. A terrifying statistic to contemplate for parents with children of any age. But what is the remedy? Do we withhold information on safe and responsible driving for teens hoping if they don't have the information they just won't drive? Like it or not, cars are an integral part of American life. Partners for Safe Teen Driving, a Virginia-based nonprofit organization, would like to reduce the number of teen car crashes by creating (gasp!) "educated and responsible teenage drivers with a commitment to safe and responsible driving." In most high schools around the country, a drivers' education course is offered. Parents talk to their teens about how to drive safely; they give them pointers based on their own driving history. Parents and educators work collectively to give our young people the tools they need to literally navigate the roads of life. This couldn't be farther from the truth when we talk about reducing the rates of unintended pregnancies or the incidence of sexually transmitted infections among teens. Yet instead of ensuring that our youth have access to researched, proven and effective sexual health education, we continue to withhold the information they need to lead healthy lives.

The Healthy Youth Alliance (HYA), a coalition of individuals, organizations and agencies in Washington state (American Academy of Pediatrics WA Chapter, Governor's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, Washington NARAL, WA Department of Health, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington and the ACLU of WA to name a few) aims to change the "don't tell, won't do" brand of sexuality education with an ambitious agenda. The alliance ("Educating Youth Today for Healthier Lives Tomorrow") intends to contribute to reduced rates of unintended pregnancy and STD/HIV infection in youth by exposing communities to researched, scientifically proven sexual health programs. They plan to do this by working directly with legislators, but also educators, community members, youth, parents and health professionals as well.

They have a long road ahead of them. Washington state has only one mandated health education "unit" for a student's entire public school life. The entirety of this sexuality education consists of one hour of HIV/AIDS education each year from fifth grade through 12^th grade. Many public schools in Washington state, with the support of the Bush administration's abstinence-only fairy tale funds, refuse to discuss condoms at all. Almost 60% of Washington teens have had sex by the time they are 18 years old and almost all will have had sex within a decade after they graduate. Rates of sexually transmitted infections among teens in Washington state has been steadily climbing and nationally half of new HIV infections occur in young people under 25 years old. And still the federal government grants almost one million dollars to our state's public schools to promote abstinence-only based sexual health education.

The Healthy Youth Alliance dares to ask why we are withholding crucial, science-based information that young people need to make the best decisions for their health and lives while affirming the need for information on abstinence as well as other methods of disease and pregnancy prevention.

There are reasons to hope, however. According to HYA, a recent poll showed that 85% of Washington parents want schools to help them provide sexual health information to their teens. In 2005, The Department of Health, in conjunction with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, rolled out their "Guidelines for Sexual Health Information and Disease Prevention" – a set of coherent, science-based voluntary guidelines that public schools may adopt to help shape their (non-mandated) sexual education curriculum (check out the "Goals of Sex Education"). And with a new state legislature, HYA is counting on the passage of The Healthy Youth Act – a new version of a recycled bill legislating standards for sexuality education that pro-choice advocates have tried to pass for years. Finally, today at 12:00PM PST, the Healthy Youth Alliance will hold a press conference in Olympia, WA to unveil the results of its extensive sex education survey of public schools around the state, Are Students Learning What They Need to Know? I'm betting the answer is no – but I'm also betting on The Healthy Youth Alliance to change that.