LititzDailyNews.com Exclusive Interview with Stenzel and VIDEO will be posted later today, so please check back.

Dick and Lois Marks sat towards the rear of the Warwick High School auditorium Wednesday night, patiently waiting to hear Pam Stenzel speak.

“We’re here as concerned grandparents,” said Dick Marks, a soft-spoken grey-haired gentleman. The couple has probably had more progeny graduate from Warwick than any other couple present for the presentation: 11 children and four grandchildren.

“We want to see these kids get a good education and some good information on sexual purity,” Marks said.

Stenzel’s presentation  included no reference to faith other than to issue a disclaimer to those looking to purchase her books, Who’s in Your Social Network and Nobody Told Me, following the event.

Over four hundred parents, grandparents, and students turned out at Warwick High School to hear what Stenzel, an abstinence advocate who speaks around the world, had to say. Her speaking engagement in the Warwick School District became the subject of scrutiny in the weeks leading up to the event after a controversial article was published in the local media.

Two school-day assemblies which were to be held today were canceled last week due to concerns for student safety in the wake of credible threats received by the district, according to Warwick superintendent Dr. April Hershey.

“Pam Stenzel didn’t lose today, your kids did.”-Pam Stenzel, on two cancelled Warwick school-day assemblies

After addressing the local press today, Stenzel spoke candidly to the audience about the challenges of teen pregnancy and the risk of sexually-transmitted infections.

“There’s no easy way out of a pregnancy you didn’t plan,” Stenzel said, outlining the three options available to teens who find themselves in the situation: abortion, raising the child as a teen parent, and adoption.

According to Stenzel, who counseled for 9 years at pregnancy clinics in Chicago and Minnesota, the toll for girls who choose abortion is high. She recalled counseling girls who, after having an abortion, experienced eating disorders, engaged in self-mutilation, and attempted suicide.

Parenting as teens is a challenge all its own, according to Stenzel, who notes that poverty often afflicts single mothers for up to a decade. She advised boys that if they impregnate a girl that they are not married to, they have no legal right to the choice the mother makes, and could be held accountable to provide child support even if still in high school.

Adoption, Stenzel believes, is “the best option available to teen girls.”

“It takes a lot of love for a girl to give her child a family,” Stenzel said, after acknowledging that surrendering a child for adoption is not done without pain and consequences.

Stenzel learned firsthand the value of being raised in a family after her birth mother, the victim of rape, put her up for adoption. She was adopted by a childless couple who had been unsuccessful at conceiving. Three weeks after she was adopted, her adoptive mother became pregnant. Stenzel also has six adopted siblings.

Stenzel occasionally interjected humor into her presentation to break the tension of the serious message about a subject that is difficult for parents and teens to broach. The presentation was devoid of yelling.

Challenged to validate facts for Warwick parents in the weeks ahead of her assembly, Stenzel acknowledged during the presentation tonight that she rechecked her facts only to discover that she had understated the current transmission rates of sexually transmitted infections (STI).

The CDC, she said, indicates that there are 10 million new STIs each year, or over 26,000 new infections per day.

“I shorted you almost 10,000 kids every single day,” she said. The number of recognized infectious diseases transmitted by sexual contact has seen a fivefold increase, according to Stenzel, since the 1950’s.

“These are serious diseases with serious consequences,” Stenzel said of the 25 STIs, which she rattles off rapidly with ease. She stresses the importance for all sexually active teens to be tested since the diseases often go unrecognized because of a lack of overt symptoms. The Chlamydia bacteria, she said, increases the risk of pelvic inflammatory disease, while HPV infection, a viral infection, can cause genital warts and cancer.

So what’s the best advice for teens?

“Keep your pants on,” she said to the girls, “and zipped, boys,” Stenzel said. “If you haven’t, you need to get tested.”

Stenzel concluded her presentation with a strong message to parents.

“There’s no democracy with teenagers,” she said, urging parents to make the tough decisions where their teens are concerned. “You’re kids might not like you.” Parents in the audience applauded enthusiastically.

Stenzel then shared the rules she used when raising her three kids, who are now adults: no dating until age 16 and a boy who wanted to date a girl must first have a face-to-face conversation with the girl’s father so that the boy can see his date in the context of her family system.

“When a teen boy can separate a girl from her family system, she can become an object to be used,” Stenzel said.

After speaking for over an hour, Stenzel praised the school district and staff, and then choked back emotion as she thought of the Warwick students who missed out on her message because of backlash from parents.

“Pam Stenzel didn’t lose today, your kids did,” said Stenzel in reference to the two cancelled school-day assemblies. “That’s too bad.”  Despite the disappointment, Stenzel remained upbeat.

“Something much greater than you know will come from this day,” she said.  Stenzel received rousing applause and a standing ovation after her remarks.

Reaction from parents and students to the speech was positive.

“I thought it was great,” said Troy Keebler. “I thought she did very well as far as presenting her thoughts and statistics.” Keebler and his wife, Kathy, brought their son, who is in 8th grade, and a daughter who is in sixth grade, to hear Stenzel.

“It supported the values that we have and I’m glad that she came.” said Kathy Keebler.

“I thought it was very well presented,” said an 8th grader.  “I’m just glad she didn’t have a slide show.”

Lynn Rebuck covers education and community for LititzDailyNews.com. She welcomes your comments and questions by email to [email protected].