This is hopeful: Catholic Answers’ chastity speaker Jason Evert addressing a public school audience:

The visit by Jason Evert, 29, of the Catholic Answers evangelical organization, based in El Cajon, Calif., had worried some parents, who feared he would inject religion into his talk. But Evert had said beforehand that, for public school visits, he omits any mention of God, sin, faith or religion.

In Berkley, he spoke to about 400 of the school’s 1,300 students, telling them about the rewards of chastity and how premarital sex is a risk to their mental and physical health.

For Bela Mittelman, 15, of Oak Park, Evert’s talk was helpful.

"A large bulk of the people I know and talk to are sexually active. We went thinking it would be just a joke," Mittelman said. "I didn’t expect to be affected, but I was crying at the end. It really gave me a different idea" about relationships, she said.