But that is my exact point.  I as a teacher can get fired at the mere suggestion that these sexually active teens protect themselves.  Don't we have a social responsibility to give the students ALL of their options.  Its the marketplace of ideas, give them all the thought on the subject and have them decide for themselves as an educated society.

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Please keep in mind that I'm not religious. I'm not a conservative. And I still think that abstinence should be policy for teens. At the very least, it should be stressed to teens that it is in their best interests to wait.

For one, teens are notorious about lacking impulse control -- one of the reasons it's especially insidious when tobacco companies target them; they don't really think about longterm consequences of their actions.

If teens are taught that everything's fine as long as you practice "safe sex," they are being done a disservice. For one, there are serious emotional ramifications to racking up sex partners at an early age (and again, teens lack the impulse control to know that the person they "love" today they will quite possibly "hate" a week from now). Also, "safe sex" is still risky. Mistakes happen, and unwanted pregnancy is the most benign result relatively.

It stuns me that we would basically give up on reaching teens by basically stating that they "will do it anyway."

In my experience, the abstinence part used to get pretty short thrift compared to the contraception part.

I feel kids are much too sexualized in general by the media and by society as a whole, and some balance of the gains of the present should be tempered with some of the good things of the past.

It was much rarer in the past. However, when it happened, people were treated very harshly, especially the girls. So in order to not treat them so harshly, we made it an ok thing to do, especially among certain groups and cultures.  No matter what the consequences.

I meant giving them both the pros and the cons.  Right now in my school system, when contraception is mentioned, they ONLY show whats wrong with them, they never mention the other side.  Its kind of like religion in schools.

Abstinence sounds like "good" to me in comparison. 

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But you are totally ignoring the fact that the abstinence program is not working.

For it to work, the who,e culture would have to change. Movies, songs, tv, commercials, parents, etc.  Otherwise its like a tiny voice shouting against millions, really.