March 11, 2004

From behind the counter at the Shop N Save, manager Suky Phull sees the ritual regularly.

"You'll see a boy put his arm around a girl," said Phull, who manages the mini-mart across the street from Modesto High School. "And he'll say, 'Hey, have you got a B-bag?'"

The "B" in B-bag stands for "brown," as in paper. Each bag contains six condoms, instructions on how to use them and fliers about where to find counseling or information on pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Using the free B-bags, Modesto's Teen Life Challenge gives out about 3,000 condoms each month within the 95351 ZIP code, which includes parts of west and south Modesto.

It is the only ZIP code involved in this program, because 93531 has been among Stanislaus County's teen pregnancy rate leaders.

The Teen Life Challenge, a nonprofit agency, opined that simply preaching abstinence and education hadn't made a dent in the problem. Nor had it slowed the increase in numbers of reported sexually transmitted diseases.

"Abstinence is great, but everybody doesn't do that," said Jerome Holbert, the Teen Life Challenge's youth coordinator.

Many teens are going to have sex regardless of the parental guidance, abstinence campaigns and education programs.

It's better to provide safe options now than discount diapers later, he reasons. So through a grant from the California Wellness Foundation and California Rural Legal Assistance, the agency began giving out the condoms in 2000.

There are 16 places -- mostly mom-and-pop grocery stores or mini-marts -- within about 10 square blocks surrounding Modesto High that distribute the bags. Most of the stores display signs in a door or window that denote a B-bag site.

The 95351 ZIP code includes some of the county's poorest people, Holbert said.

"Our issue is a socioeconomic issue," he said.

It's difficult for teens to avoid the cycle of poverty if they don't graduate from high school and go on to college. And it's a task made even tougher when a high-school girl also is a mother.

"Children are having children," he said.

Is the B-bag program effective?

Cle Moore of the county's Public Health Services said it is too early to know whether the B-bags or any other campaign has had an impact. But she said pretty much anything that advocates safety is good, even if the results aren't immediately apparent.

"The germination of thought can take a couple of generations before it has an impact on the county," she said.

Statistics, she said, don't always tell the story.

The number of teenagers giving birth annually within 93531 has risen, from 186 in the first year of the program, to 195 in 2003, with a four-year high of 209 in 2002. The numbers reflect mothers ages 15 through 19.

Likewise, the teen population was expected to rise about 10 percent in 95351 over the past two years, if census 2000 projections panned out.

Among sexually transmitted diseases, gonorrhea cases fell from 47 in 2000 to just 26 in 2002, but spiked up to 48 last year. And the number of reported chlamydia cases has increased each of the four years, from 179 in 2000 to 250 last year. But those numbers encompass all ages within 93531 -- not just teenagers.

The Teen Life Challenge relies on its membership to get the word out to teens about the available counseling, education and, yes, the B-bags containing condoms.

It's a start, but there's lots of work to do.

Outside the Shop N Save one day this week, students I spoke with claimed they didn't know anything about the B-bags or the reason for the sign on the door saying the store is a B-bag site.

While some students do ask for the bags, store manager Phull said, some wait too long.

"We have one girl who comes in here who is pregnant," he said.