By Elizabeth Duffrin/LISC Chicago
On a winter afternoon at Ames Middle School in Logan Square, Aisha
Jean-Baptiste tells her sex education class to count off by threes.
After reviewing a list of sexual behaviors posted on the board, each
group is assigned to identify those that are either high risk, low risk
or no risk.
The discussion is energetic, the giggling minimal.
After listing their decisions, a volunteer from each group confidently
reads them aloud to the class. “Flirting” is judged among the safest
activities, “vaginal sex without a condom” among the most dangerous.
Aisha
Jean-Baptiste, from the Chicago Women's Health Center, conducts an
eighth grade sex education class at Ames Middle School in Logan Square,
part of the Elev8 program and mandatory this year at all Chicago Public
Schools.Photo: Gordon Walek
Last spring, Ames
became the second of Chicago’s five Elev8 schools to offer
comprehensive sex education to its middle school students. The Atlantic
Philanthropies, an international foundation supporting Elev8 programs
in four U.S. locations, made comprehensive sex education a requirement
for receiving the four-year grant, which totaled $18 million in
Chicago.
One goal of the project is to show how improved
student health can lead to higher academic achievement, and helping
kids avoid unsafe sexual activity is a part of that, said Alice Duff, a
program executive at Atlantic.
Parents and educators at Elev8
schools were uneasy with the requirement at first, said Chris Brown,
director of education programs for LISC. While comprehensive sex
education promotes abstinence, it also teaches adolescents how to
protect themselves from pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases if
they do become sexually active.
“Nobody thinks that
middle-schoolers should be having sex,” he said, “but unfortunately
some are, and we have to give them information to make responsible
choices.”
New CPS requirement
Chicago Public
Schools came to a similar conclusion after a federal study released
last year revealed that 25 percent of girls between the ages of 14 and
19 carry a sexually transmitted disease.
Previously, the
district had strongly encouraged, but not required, schools to offer
comprehensive sex education. A new policy requires it for all students
in grades 5 to 12 beginning this spring, although their parents may opt
them out.
At Ames, a series of presentations about sex
education reassured nervous parents, said Adriana Portillo-Bartow, the
school’s Elev8 director. “I think that they understand that it’s a need
and don’t feel equipped to do it,” she said.
During
one class exercise, students consider the advantages, disadvantages,
and "worst thing that could happen" in a particular sexual scenario.
Schools
typically assign sex education to a health or science teacher. Using
$6,000 in Elev8 funds, Ames was able to hire Jean-Baptiste from the
Chicago Women’s Health Center to lead four to six classes for the
school’s 800 students. The district recommends hiring an outside
provider because kids tend to be more open with an adult like
Jean-Baptiste who, unlike their science teacher, they don’t see every
day.
As Jean-Baptiste moved into a presentation on barriers and
contraception, students peppered her with questions. For the shyer
among them, Jean-Baptiste passed a box for “secret questions.” A boy in
the back row slipped one in after sharing it with several smiling
buddies; some classes drop in five or six, she said.
“They ask
questions about masturbation, things that might seem silly, like, 'Are
you still a virgin if you use a tampon?' ” she said. “Can you hurt
yourself if you have too much sex? Can you get pregnant from anal sex?
I’ll answer any question that they ask.”
Not just saying 'no'
The
course also covers puberty, male and female anatomy, sexual
orientation, sexually transmitted diseases and infections, responsible
decision-making, and what Jean-Baptiste calls “refusal skills.”
“They
stand up and read a ‘no statement’ assertively using eye contact,” she
explained. Kids learn to say “No, I’m not ready,” to a request for
intimacy and “in a voice that [lets] people know that they mean
business,” she said.
During the final session of the four-week
workshop, students are instructed in the use of contraceptive devices.
“It’s scary to think about giving young people this information,”
Jean-Baptiste acknowledged, but rejected the idea that talking about
topics like contraception sends kids the wrong message. “I don’t think
they’re more likely to be sexually active. I think they end up making
better decisions.”
Eighth-graders who completed her workshops
agreed. “I didn’t know the risks of having sex – now I do,” said
Yeselmi Perez, who said she had never heard of HIV, the virus that
causes AIDS, before Jean-Baptiste’s class.
Other kids said that
they knew about AIDS but not other diseases like gonorrhea, syphilis or
herpes, “some that can’t be cured,” noted Rodrigo Arellano.
Felipe
Aguilar said the most important message he got was to “pause, and
think. Is two or three minutes of satisfaction worth giving your life
away?”
Teens are more likely to choose abstinence when they have
all the facts, the kids insisted. “I don’t want diseases or babies,”
explained Rocio Sosa. She added that the arguments against sex
education make no sense to her. “If they don’t teach us [at school]
where are we going to learn it from? Our parents are not going to teach
us about that, so we have to learn in school.”
“If you don’t
teach [kids] what they need to know, they’ll end up with a mistake that
they can’t [undo],” Felipe agreed. “There are some choices that you
just can’t take back.”
