The SexuaB Revolufion Hits Junior HighThe kids are doing more than baring bellies: They?re shockingadults with their anything-goes behaviorKnr P,qtvreRSpecialfor USA TADAYicture the mating rites of middie-schoolers. Perhaps youirnagine hand- holding and first kisses, girls trying outeye shadow, boys sneaking a peek at vulgar men?smagazlnes.Now look again, through the eyes ofincreasingly concernededucators and experts:. Researchers in WasLrington, D.C., recentiy started aprogram toprevent early sexual activiry. They planned to offer it to seventhgraders,but after a pilot study decided to target fifth-graders-becausetoo many seventh-graders already were having sex. . Jo Mecham, a nurse at a Bettendorf, Iowa, middle school,says she overhears ?pretty explicit sexual talk? from boys andgirls in her ?conservative? community. And despite a dresscode, girls come to classes looking like bare-bellied rock stars:?They?I1 leave the house totaliy OK, and when they get toschool, they start disrobing.?. Joey Zbylut-Birky, a middle-school teacher in Omaha, recentlyasked students to think about ?where they feel most comfortable?as part of an assignment to write song titles aboutthemselves. A group of giggling boys piped up with commentsabout receiving oral sex.The list goes on. Middle schools that used to do withoutdress codes now must send home exhaustive inventories of forbiddengarments, from tube tops to too-low hip-huggers.Schools that used to handle crude language on a case-by-casebasis now must have ?no-profanify? policies. And sexual-harassmenttraining is a normal part of middle-school curriculum.The world ?is rougher, it is sexier and it has reached down totouch boys and girls at younger ages,? says Margaret Sagarese,who, rvith Charlene C. Giannetti, has written several books onparenting, including the new The Patience of a Saint: HowFaith Can SustainYotL DLtring the ToughTimes of Parenltng.Baby-boomer parents who thoughL that nothing would evershock them are shocked by the way their young teens ta1k, dressand perhaps even behave, Sagarese says.?Things have changed,? says Jude Swift, 52, a mother of fivewhose youngest is an eighrh-grade boy. ?i think a greai deal ofit j.s due to the media and rvhat kids see on TV, in magazine ads, ;, in lideos?. -tt?s all abour beino sexv.?ii :lii lj::;:3lff:;;::J