Joe Lavigne (R): Children should be focusing the majority of their time on education and on getting to know other children. [They] should not be focused on sexual relationships. I think that abstinence would be the best policy. We should tell our children the risk associated with having a sexual relationship. I think that the best policy is always to teach abstinence.

Regina Bartholomew (D): Abstinence-only education does not address every need of every child, though it may work for some children if they have the reinforcement at home. Every child does not get the home guidance that he or she needs in terms of abstinence. So if you're only teaching abstinence and you have children who are curious about sex and decide to engage in sex, and you don't tell them how to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases or early pregnancies, then you're going to have a problem. I don't think that abstinence-only education is a solution to the problems that teenagers face when they contract STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) and when they have unwanted early pregnancies.

Regina Bartholomew (D): Children need to be taught acceptance of all people irrespective of their sexual orientation choices. However, I don't believe [that] there needs to be a promotion of same-sex orientation.

Joe Lavigne (R): Sex education should be equal across the board. I think that abstinence should always be the same and that abstinence is the best policy for our children.

Regina Bartholomew (D): From about the 4th grade until about the 6th grade, I think just an education on what is sex, your sexual organs and that should be taught at that level. From 7th grade to 12th, then the discussion should be more along the lines of if you decide to engage in sex, it should be more of a sex education in terms of condom usage, what STDs you may contract.

Joe Lavigne (R): I'm not a special educator but in my mind I think that we probably need to start doing that at puberty, when sexual urges start to arise. ... I went to a Catholic school and we had sex ed when I was in 8th grade, so I was 14 years old when they started teaching it.

Joe Lavigne (R): We need to have our parents starting to talk to our children about sexual abstinence and the problems associated with having sexual relationships at such an early age. And that's really where the best chance of teaching our children is - in the home. Parents can't give excuses; they can't say, "Oh, I can't talk to my child about that. They won't listen." Kids are receptive to their parents. They want to talk to their parents, especially at an early age. They need to start at an early age, explaining to their children the effects of a sexual relationship so that they're responsible.

Regina Bartholomew (D): You have some parents who are very closed-minded and who are not willing to teach their children anything but abstinence. What I think the best mechanism that works for all probably would be the children being able to speak with their peers and teachers at school, but then at some point you bring the parents to the discussion. You have a meeting or you do something with the parents involved at some point so that the parents are fully aware of what their children are being taught, fully aware of what the issues in terms of sex and sex education that their children are interested in so that they cannot be blind to the fact of dealing with their kids.

Regina Bartholomew (D): I think that you can instruct children as to the usage of condoms in school and the prevention of pregnancy, the uses of condoms and birth control. But I do not think that school should be a place where you actually distribute the condoms, or distribute the birth control, or distribute the literature on abortion or adoption. What the schools have to do is work with community organizations that will distribute those condoms, which will distribute birth control, whether it's family planning clinics, whether it's birth control centers, whether it's HIV/AIDS groups.

Joe Lavigne (R): I don't think that it's the role of any governmental agency to hand out condoms to children. I don't think that federal dollars should be used to promote sex amongst underage people.

Joe Lavigne (R): I think [sex education] is something that is better left up to the states. I think that the states should fund these programs and that the federal government should stay out of it.

Regina Bartholomew (D): I believe that while abstinence is a noble and noteworthy idea, it's unrealistic in the times in which we live. ... For society to just ignore the fact that teenagers have sex and [to] just address abstinence, it's not sufficient. It's important that we raise holistic children who fully understand every single thing about life, about the decisions and choices that they make in life. Part of that would be sex education.