Reports of teen sex parties in Carroll County have drawn outrage among other students and concern among health officials in the Baltimore region.

The Examiner reported Wednesday that some health and school officials confirmed that middle and high school students in Carroll were engaging in sex games at parties that sometimes involved as many as 30 participants.

“First of all, that’s disgusting,” said Shannin Gunther, 15, a sophomore at Catonsville High School in Baltimore County. “In middle school, I was definitely thinking more about sports than my sexual activities. I don’t think anyone should be having sex, let alone sex parties, at that age.”

Nearly half of high school students have had sexual intercourse and 14 percent said they had four or more partners during their life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Of those, 34 percent said they did not use a condom during their last encounter.

Adolescents are more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors, such as unprotected sex, when they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

In 2005, 23 percent of high school students who had sexual intercourse during the past three months drank alcohol or used drugs before the last sexual intercourse, according to the CDC. Sexual incidents outside school are taken seriously and should be reported to the administration when discovered, said David Barney, spokesman for the Baltimore Teachers Union.

“It’s like a child being abused in the home. A teacher will investigate it, ask the necessary questions and refer it to the administration,” he said. Teachers’ hands are tied by parental concern over discussing such behavior with students, he said.

“This is a society that doesn’t want to talk about sex in the classroom. It’s an inhibition of society,” he said.

“It is more of a parental issue. Parents need to step up and be parents. Parents have to step up and intervene and know what is going on in their child’s life.”

Statistics show fewer teen mothers in Maryland, but data about sexually transmitted diseases among teens remains scarce and out of date.

According to Department of Health and Mental Hygiene statistics, statewide rates of live births increase in older age groups from 0.6 births for every 1,000 girls under 15 to 31.8 in the 15 to 19 age group.

The Baltimore region has a higher prevalence of teenaged mothers, from 0.7 per 1,000 under 15, to 33.9 aged 15 to 19.

Previous data released by the state showed a 39 percent drop in teen births between 1995 and 2004, with the downward trend continuing through 2005. However, the state does not track pregnancies, only live births.

Information about trends in sexually transmitted diseases among minors was not immediately available.

Despite the lack of statistics, the potential for an epidemic is high, said Baltimore City Health Commissioner Josh Sharfstein.

“If people are sexually active but monogamous, the spread of sexually transmitted disease is considerably limited,” he said.

“Multiple sex partners are a factor that can really spark an epidemic. All it takes is one person in a group, and suddenly everybody’s got ‘it.’ ”

Statistics from Baltimore City show declines in sexually transmitted diseases for every age group from age 20 and up, but numbers for teens were not available.

Staff Writers Emily Campbell and Kelly Carson contributed to this report.

khille@baltimoreexaminer.com