MichiganRadio

Peers Teach Sex Ed GRAND RAPIDS, MI (Michigan Radio) - About half of kids in Michigan high schools have had sex and health educators are worried about potential consequences. The rates of sexually-transmitted-infections like chlamydia and gonorrhea are rising among young people. There's also concern about teen pregnancies. One Michigan program is teaching sex education by harvesting the power of how kids get information from their friends. Michigan Radio's Kyle Norris has this story.


In downtown Grand Rapids several teenage girls are preparing some arts and crafts projects. Above them on the wall is a pink poster. It says "Delay Tactics" and then gives examples of things to say if you don't want to have sex, things like "not until we get tested for STIs."

High school senior Amelia Brown is building an anatomy model.

"We have a plastic bag," she says, "two bendy straws, two pieces of red yarn, a rubber band and two square sheets of foil. Now I'm going to start with the foil representing the ovaries."

We are at Planned Parenthood of West and Northern Michigan. The young women here are all peer leaders. They went through a special training to learn about anatomy, abstinence, birth control, sexually transmitted infections, and communication skills.

As peer leaders they go to community groups and churches and co-teach a program with an adult health professional. It's called "Safer Choices." It's billed as a teen pregnancy prevention initiative.

One of the things the peer leaders teach other kids is how to build models of reproductive organs. Which is what Jamaya Bozman and Amelia Brown are working on.

Brown says before she took the class to become a peer leader, she knew very little about basic anatomy.

Brown and Bozman hold the models against their bodies to show where the real reproductive organs sit. The models are pretty low-tech, but the peer leaders say these are a fun, hands-on, visual way to teach other kids about anatomy.

Health officials say anatomy is a key element of teaching young people about sexual health. Amy Peterson is with the Michigan Department of Community Health.

"We need to understand what's happening with our bodies and how it functions when it's healthy so we're aware when it's not healthy, and use the actual medical terms like the penis, the vagina. That is because when we talk about down there' that gives the idea it's something to be embarrassed about and that we don't really talk about it because we won't even name it."

When these young women made anatomy models, they spoke comfortably and knowledgeably about what they were doing.

Officials at Planned Parenthood say this peer-teaching method is one of the best things they've got going when it comes to education. The class is typically taught after school, and Planned Parenthood of West and Northern Michigan teaches the classes in Kent and Muskegon County.

When it comes to sexual education in school, school boards decide what will or won't be taught in the classroom.

Some organizations like the Christian ministry Focus on the Family believe in an abstinence-only curriculum. Focus on the Family also believes parents should be the primary educators when it comes to teaching kids about sex.

When the young women were taking their initial class to become peer leaders, they had what was called a parent night. Amelia Brown said it was her favorite part. She says her parents came and they opened up and they all talked more.

Brown and the other peer leaders say once the word spread that they were in the know about sex and sexual health, people began approaching them.
"My friends have a lot of questions like pregnancies, STDs where can they get this or that," says Brown. "I feel like they understand and trust me. They say I didn't know that. Are you serious, are you for real?' And I say yes and I have information, correct information we can refer to. I also have people that I can talk to that you can talk to."

That's what the officials with Planned Parenthood and the state health department have said: that young people need many sources to turn to for accurate information, including parents, professionals, teachers, other adults, and even their friends.


knorris@umich.edu
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