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economic as well as social problem. Ms. Bowman discussed risk factors that lead to teen pregnancies. She said that Churchill High School operated a child development center for children ages 2 to 5 that served teenage parents. There were also parenting classes and support for the mothers to help them graduate. Ms. Bowman said that such programs helped to prevent a second teenage pregnancy; national statistics indicated that one-fourth of teenage mothers have another child within two years of their first child. Ms. Luke said that sex education and health classes currently offered to students were inadequate and did not educate teen-agers or provide them answers to the questions they had about their sexuality. She said that Linn County had established a task force to address the issue of teen pregnancy. Ms. Luke quoted from the task force's mission statement: To focus on prevention, pregnancy, and parenting issues of Linn County, Oregon by improving access to available resources, developing community awareness, and a better understanding of issues related to teen pregnancy, and facilitating development of needed services and resources with community involvement. Ms. Luke suggested a similar effort could be undertaken in Lane County with the same areas of emphasis. She did not think the community wanted to think about the issue and merely labeled teenage mothers. Ms. Luke said that there should be plenty of resources to deal with the problem, which had many impacts beyond the girl involved. She said that early intervention was the key to solving teenage pregnancy. Ms. Luke said that the Multnomah County's STARS (Students Today Are Not Ready for Sex) program was an effective program that Eugene could model. Ms. Bowman said that the issue of teen pregnancy was too big not to address. Eugene prided itself on its openness to diversity but the lives of teen mothers were overlooked. Aggressive and progressive programming would take time and money, but compared to the money spent on teenage pregnancies it would be a very wise investment. Mayor Torrey thanked the youth leaders for their remarks. He said that during his discussions of the daytime curfew proposal with young people many other important issues had come up. He did not believe there was a better way to get an understanding of the issues facing youth and how they might be approached than by listening to young people. Ms. Nathanson assured the youth leaders that the council was listening to them but it sometimes took a while for ideas to germinate and programs to evolve. She expressed the hope the council could write a letter to the different Eugene school districts describing what it had heard today. She also supported writing a letter to the Intergovernmental Human Services Commission about some of the issues raised by the students, and suggested that further consideration would reveal other agencies the City should work with on solutions to the problems of youth. Mr. Kelly thanked the students for their presentations. He said he was glad the item was a monthly agenda item and suggested it should be scheduled for a longer time to allow for more discussion. He asked the youth leaders to consider the issue of whether youth were treated differently by the Eugene Police and to provide feedback on the experience of young people's interactions with the police to the council. Mr. Kelly recommended that Ms. Barta contact the Lane Transit Board soon to provide input on bus routing. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 24, 1999 Page 5 11:30 a.m.