Indiana- Men who live in rural areas often use condoms incorrectly, according to a study out this week that Indiana University researchers say underscores the shortcomings of sex education in Hoosier public schools.

Almost half the men who answered IU survey questions about their latest sexual encounters with women admitted they waited too long to put on a condom or took it off too soon.

Researchers say the study of 75 men statewide stands apart from other condom research because it focuses on how men use condoms instead of how often. Rural men were singled out as part of broader attempts to track AIDS prevention efforts in those areas.

“We did these studies to find out, are people actually making mistakes?” said William Yarber, a researcher at IU’s Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction. “And if they are, of course, those mistakes expose them to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.”

Yarber said the study, which was paid for by the university’s Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention, shows schools should teach students how to use condoms. The idea, however, turns off supporters of programs that encourage children to delay sex until marriage.

“We think, by exaggerating the safety of sex, that many young people end up trusting their health to a piece of latex that may not protect them,” said Esther Meier, director of Creating Positive Relationships, a Carmel nonprofit program that teaches abstinence to about 50,000 children statewide through schools and churches.

How responsible Hoosiers are about sex isn’t clear. The teenage pregnancy rate dropped by 11 percentage points from 1999 to 2003, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.

But reports of chlamydia and other sexually transmitted diseases jumped about 12 percent in the same period, according to the Department of Health.

State law requires schools to emphasize abstinence outside marriage as the only safeguard against pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Teachers legally can include information about birth control and safe sex, but exact lesson plans are up to local school boards.

“Many schools don’t talk about condoms for pregnancy and STD prevention, and even fewer talk about the details of correct use,” Yarber said. “From a public health perspective, we feel that information leads to less risky behavior.”Bob Klitzman, former president of the state’s Small and Rural Schools Association, believes safe-sex lessons belong outside the schoolhouse doors.

“The schools cannot do everything,” said Klitzman, superintendent of Eastern Pulaski Schools in Northwest Indiana. “I would rather have the education, the efforts, the money, go to organizations and have them educate parents on what to do, what to say and how to say it.”

Students at Sheridan High School watch videotapes that show the physical damage of sexually transmitted diseases. Melody Rosenberger, 17, said the tapes would have persuaded her to avoid sex if she hadn’t already vowed to wait for marriage.

“That really grossed me out,” said Rosenberger, a senior.

She doesn’t believe lessons about condom use belong at school.

“If they’re going to have sex, they need to research how to use condoms themselves,” Rosenberger said. Then she added: “But honestly, I don’t think they would.”