While school officials are still investigating the circumstances surrounding eight middle schoolers having sex on a field trip, previous plans by some middle school parents to take their children to a sex education event continue.

While on a trip to Washington, D.C. in April, a group of girls from one room visited a group of boys during the night, and engaged in romantic relations.

A parent and guidance counselor at a Little Mountain Elementary School, Sherry Swindler, said she knew her children and their friends were facing similar pressures and was looking for ways to help them.

She remembered the slogan “true love waits the silver ring thing,” and then heard a promo for the Silver Ring Thing SC on a local Christian radio station.

The Christian-based organization encourages sexual purity and abstinence until marriage and educates parents and children about dating, sex, how to face temptations and other matters.

The three-hour event also talks about second chances.

Swindler then began to encourage parents and youth at Aveleigh Presbyterian Church, where she is a member, to attend an upcoming event in Columbia on May 24. She is also encouraging her friends and their children to go.

While the plans for the local youth group were made before the details of the Mid-Carolina Middle School field trip were known, even more parents are now looking for ways to discuss the issue of sex with their children.

The Silver Ring Thing group offers information using comedy, sound and special effects. During the event, the youth and adults are put into separate groups.

Swindler is trying to get an event set up in Newberry, but adds in the meantime there will be another event in Irmo in October.

For more information on the Silver Ring Thing go to www.silverringthingsc.com.