BSVDWatch.org

I would just like to say, as a Boulder High student who attended this conferance, that the message conveyed to me was not the message that the media and in fact this very site has tryied to convey. I think it's very important for everyone to understand, that with the exeption of Joel Becker's comments, this panel was in my opinion, very objective. I left the conferance with the impression that they were trying to tell me that if I was to do any of these things, that I should be educated on thier consequences, which is a form of diterrant in itself. My last comment is, that I belive that unless you were present at the conferance, and was able to hear the full range of connotation and body language, as well as to notice that many BHS students questioned the panelist's motives besides the final student, that you are not quailfied to make an accurate judgement of what was said.

Wow. The four panelists would have sex with someone they liked, but who did not love them.

If you stop listening to the idiotic adults and listen to the teens' questions, several of them tried to get the panelists to make a connection between sex and love. The panelists, however, were not able to connect the dots. The kids here are smarter than the adults. They know that sex involves much more than a physical act, and they are trying to get the adults to expound on this. Sadly, the opportunity to reinforce what the students already suspect - that sex can be a profoundly meaningful act of intimacy with another person - was completely lost.

Just to go off of what another BHS student said, I think the conferance was really good...good in this case meaning that it was educational. That's all that should matter right? School is about education, right? Well, I learned a lot of new things I didn't know before, like all the statistics about marriage, STD's, and drug use. I'm a big oppoent of using drugs, alcohol, and I think you should have sex only when your ready. Going to this conferance didnt change that for me, but now I'm much more educated on why people do it, and on many reasons why I shouldn't do it. They listed a lot of consequences that I didn't think of before, or that my parents or health class never tought me. I thought this was really good, it may have been an uncoventional way to present the information, but obviously considering the attention is getting now, uncoverntional really got the message across. Thanks for reading this.

i must honestly say that I have very mixed feelings about the context of what was said here. I do not like adults in a semi-authority type of setting telling kids that it is alright to engage in conduct that will potentially ruin their lives. However, from what I read here that was not the intent. They were saying, if you are going to do it, be careful. Also, we must remember that Boulder is a very liberal community.

My concern is not whether or not the panelists spoke much truth, but what the audience heard. The message was "according to what you can handle, experiment wisely." What high schooler doesn't believe he/she can handle anything? So message that comes across to kids is "experiment, experiment, experiment!"

Please read the transcript before commenting.
Bill O'Reilly and the local media has done a great job of pulling snippets of this transcript out of context and stringing them together to make this seem like an unholy bombardment of sinful suggestion. It isn't.
The underlying theme, reiterated throughout every speaker's presentation, is that kids should take action to fully UNDERSTAND what they are doing, before leaping. I am extremely disappointed in Boulder's grown-up community for not doing the same, before reacting. As someone not too far out of BHS, I can say that I wish there were forums like this one when I was attending.Parents that truly care about and comprehend their children's needs, understand that the only way to help arm kids with the tools to make good decisions, is to provide them with open, honest discussion and information.
Furthermore, please remember that censorship, even in the classroom, is totally un-American.

Yeah, most of you people clearly didn't actually read this transcript. The panelists all gave young people credit for being able to control themselves. It's those people who seek to control by force of law others' behavior who don't display faith in humanity. Young people whose minds are not completely developed should have access to guidance and make educated CHOICES, not just submit to largely arbitrary rules.

oh and i agree with no. 9 that perhaps the event might have been better if more viewpoints were addressed. i think, though, it would have deflated to a shouting match. perhaps the zero tolerance people could have come in the same day or something, i don't know. These panelists seemed tolerant of other people's views, really. and really, we students have been subject to the hard-line zero tolerance approach since kindergarten it seems, and this kind of discussion was barred from us even through high school.

If you are offended by this panel, you didn't read enough of the transcript. The message is one of Intelligent choice. Lets facte facts..kids do drugs. Kids have sex. if you are a real parent you know that educating your children is the best thing you could possibly do for your kids. I am a child of the 60's and by no means an angel.. however I am not a drug addict, and the only woman I ever got pregnant is the woman who I am married to ..

There are plenty of ways to show kids that you are on thier level without encouraging them to do drugs and have sex without a condom. These are kids.