![Christopher Anderson/The Gazette
Justine Love, a former radio talk show host, leads an educational session Jan. 25, \"What You Don\'t Know Can Hurt,\" about sexuality and sexually transmitted infections at an assembly for ninth-graders at Oxon Hill High School.](/storyimage/PN/20120126/NEWS/701269821/AR/AR-701269821.jpg "Christopher Anderson/The Gazette
Justine Love, a former radio talk show host, leads an educational session Jan. 25, \\"What You Don\'t Know Can Hurt,\\" about sexuality and sexually transmitted infections at an assembly for ninth-graders at Oxon Hill High School.")
Laughter and giggling could be heard throughout the Oxon Hill High School gymnasium as freshmen were asked questions relating to parts of the female and male anatomies and about common justifications for having sex or for not using protection during sex.
But toward the end of the questions, the issue of sex was no longer a laughing matter for students who said the assembly Jan. 25 on STD awareness encouraged them to consider better lifestyle choices.
The event, “What You Don’t Know Can Hurt,” was held for the freshman class as the first of a series of assemblies launched in a schoolwide effort to provide students information on health risks associated with sex and how to protect themselves from those risks.
The event featured guest speaker Justine Love, the former host of the evening radio show “Love Talk” on WPGC 95.5 and current director of community and public affairs for CBS Radio’s Lanham-based office.
The idea for the event came from school nurses Edna Moore and Janice Holt, who approached Principal Jean-Paul Cadet about holding an awareness/outreach event about sexually transmitted diseases after seeing a number of students come into the clinic in recent months seeking help with sexual health issues.
Prince George’s County has the second-highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the state behind Baltimore city, where African-Americans represent approximately 86.5 percent of new AIDS cases, according to the county’s Health Department.
In 2008, chlamydia and gonorrhea cases were highest for those in the age group 15-19 in the county, according to the county’s Health Department.
In 2010, Prince George’s had the second-highest rate of births among teens ages 15-17 and 18-19 behind Baltimore city, according to the Maryland Vital Statistics Administration’s preliminary report for 2010.
“We’ve had a lot of kids who have come in and ask us for birth control or suspect they might be pregnant,” Moore said. “They don’t know what to do, and they don’t have anybody to really talk to about the importance of protection.”
Moore said she was also concerned after hearing students’ accounts of sexual activities. She said the school includes a unit on sex education in the health classes but said those classes often do not provide some of the information students are seeking.
Students had to bring in a permission slip signed by a parent to attend the assembly, Moore said.
Patricia Papa, a certified nurse practitioner with Prince George’s County Public Schools, who answered sex-related questions that were anonymously submitted by students, said many high school nurses have planned events and activities related to STD awareness and sex education, but she did not know any that have been as large a scale as Oxon Hill High’s assembly program.
On Jan. 25, Love and a few on-air personalities from WPGC led students in a discussion on topics ranging from dating and relationships to types of STDs and identifying different forms of birth control.
Love also warned students about the dangers of “sexting,” the act of sending sexually explicit messages and photos via text messages, and encouraged boys and girls to respect each other.
“Your body is the only temple you have,” she said. “Don’t let anybody talk you into doing something that you don’t feel good about.”
Senior class president Terrence Odom, 17, of Upper Marlboro, who introduced Love at the event, said it was important for students to learn about these issues before leaving for college.
“It was definitely educational,” he said. “... Sex is something that needs to be addressed more with students because it is a part of our lives and what we deal with every day.”
Oxon Hill High has a Health Wellness center, one of four centers that are available on-site at four public schools in the county, where students can get tested for sexually transmitted diseases. The centers are operated by the county’s health department.
Cadet said the school plans to hold similar assemblies for students in the other grades throughout the remainder of the school year, as well as additional separate assemblies for girls and boys to discuss issues relating to sexual health.
“We have a motto at the school that when you know better, you do better,” he said. “It’s all about informing and empowering our students so that they are better prepared to make the right decisions.”
Moore said she and Holt hung a poster display outside the clinic featuring images of the different types of STDs and information on each disease as an educational tool for students.
Oxon Hill Drama Club members performed skits demonstrating situations where teens face peer pressure to have sex.
Parent Ebony Howard, who is also hospitality chairwoman for the school’s PTSA, said she appreciates what the program was trying to accomplish.
“It’s needed because kids are going to be sexually active even if we don’t want them to be,” she said. “At least we can show them that if they go into it, bad things can happen versus that one-time feeling.
“I’m glad we’re being proactive instead of reactive,” she added.
Howard said parents also need to make the initiative to talk about sex with their children if they haven’t already.
“Be a teenager, be a kid,” was her advice to students. “You’ll have plenty of years to have sex. Don’t do it now.”
mliu@gazette.net
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