Kelsey Volkmann, The Examiner
2006-11-15 10:00:00.0
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Carroll County, Md. -

Middle and high schoolers are engaging in sex parties in Carroll County, according to two health counselors.

“A couple of young people in the last four to six months started talking about attending parties where middle schoolers and high schoolers were engaging in sex with multiple partners,” said Mark Yount, substance abuse prevention coordinator with Junction Inc., an outpatient treatment agency in Westminster.

Teenagers, both from northern Carroll County, described a house with wall-to-wall mattresses, he said.

“I don’t know if they are using condoms,” Yount said. “We’re going to have an STD epidemic with this sharing of bodily fluids.”

Teenagers have told Cindy Marucci-Bosley, women’s health manager for the Carroll County Family Planning Clinic in Westminster, about the sex games they play involving oral and anal sex and the sharing of semen among multiple partners.

“There are days when seven or so teens come for emergency contraception and all come from the same high school or middle school,” she said. “There’s a huge number of 16- and 17-year-olds who say they’ve had 30 or 40 partners.”

STDs among teens are on the rise in Carroll, according to a report this year by nonprofit Partnership for a Healthier Carroll County Inc.

Chlamydia increased 50 percent during the past five years, with 77 percent of the infections reported by people between 15 and 24 years, and reports of gonorrhea in the past five years jumped 65 percent, with 24 percent of cases involving 15- to 19-year-olds.

Teen pregnancy in Carroll also spiked in recent years, with 186 cases in 2004, compared with 164 in 2001, according to the latest Maryland Vital Statistics Annual Report.

Yount and Marucci-Bosley say teens engage in risky sexual behavior under the influence of alcohol.

“Teenagers are making poor choices because of drinking,” Marucci-Bosley said. “They are having unprotected intercourse at strange times. They are footloose and fancy-free, and no one’s paying attention.”

“They’ve got to be wasted,” Yount said. “I call it sexual fear factor.”

According to the latest census estimates, Carroll County has a population of about 42,000 age 18 and under.

By the numbers

From September 2005 to March 2006, 95 patients age 13 to 20 were seen at the Carroll County Health Department’s STD Clinic.

Source: Carroll County School Health Council

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com