Learning Through Teaching

“These students want somebody to tell them that they’re worth waiting for,” says Simmons. “That’s what they want to hear, and that’s not what they’re hearing everywhere else.”

Research is demonstrating that students aren’t waiting, though, and a recent national study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported one in four teenage girls are infected with one of four common STDs (human papillomavirus, Chlamydia, genital herpes or trichomoniasis). Among those infected, 15 percent were infected with more than one of the diseases.

Some feel statistics like these indicate abstinence-only programs like Justwait don’t provide practical information students need if they do choose to have sex, which is where Planned Parenthood and its eight FYI peer educators come in.

Britney Brewer, a Fulton junior, acknowledges part of her work is filling in the gaps left by sex education in schools and at home.

 “They [Justwait] tell you ‘Don’t have sex. Never have sex,’” she says. “They don’t tell you that you can stop having sex if you’ve already started. They passed out [abstinence] cards, but they wouldn’t give me one because I was already pregnant. They messed up on that because I was an angry pregnant lady and I cussed them all out.”

She adds: “A lot of people aren’t educated, especially at our age.”  

Some FYI students, like Brewer, only dispensed information to at-risk peers or when approached with a request for assistance. Others were more vocal with their newly gained knowledge, proclaiming themselves “sexperts” and bringing up sex-related topics whenever applicable.

“I stood up in classes when it was relevant and talked about the importance of sex education,” says Honicker. “Most adolescents are really receptive when it’s a peer telling them things and not an authority figure pounding it in their faces.”

WWinter says the FYI peer educators can be  as effective as the adults who work for Planned Parenthood.

“One teen [educator] called me recently and said, ‘I have this friend and she’s sitting here and she’s pregnant and she needs to know what to do. I have this notebook full of information you’ve given me, but I don’t know how to help her,’” says Winter. “I said ‘Well, what are you doing?’ She said, ‘Right now, I’m making a list of all three of her options and the pros and cons of each one.’ I said, ‘You don’t need me because that’s exactly what you should be doing.’”

To celebrate the success of the inaugural year’s program, all eight peer educators took photographs for an exhibit called Framing Choice: What Choice Means to Me, presented April 24 at Three Flights Up Gallery. The photographs artistically represent their individual notions of choice, and some of them depict choices already made.

Both Winter and Barry hope students use their FYI knowledge to make safe and healthy choices as they approach life after high school.

“I think the program is incredibly important,” says Barry, “not only because of what we teach them, but I feel like we’ve given them so much more self-confidence. Now they feel comfortable talking about these issues and talking about sex and they’re comfortable in their knowledge.”