AIDS awareness in school

[House-Of-Leaves]

This is something that I thought about after Commander brought up the issue of condoms in schools.

When and where is AIDS awareness appropriate, and how far should parents/teachers/authority figures go to prevent the spread of this disease?

Please keep in mind that...well. I reserve the right to fully bitch-slap anyone that posts in this thread that they believe AIDS to be a 'homosexual disease'. If that's a viewpoint that someone wants to cover, please do so in a thread that I don't have to read? I truly don't want to turn into a raging bitch, and -that- will most certainly do it. :)

Anyway, back to the issue: when I was in college, a professor of mine told of his public school teaching years, and how three of his students contracted HIV in one year. He told of the battle he had with the principal of the school, and how he eventually got through to him.

Professor Kuntz went to the principal and asked, very calmly, "Sir, if there was a dangerous, deadly curve in the road in front of the school, one that killed two or three students throughout the course of the year, what would you do about it?" The principal replied, "Well, I'd put a crosswalk and a traffic light there if I could." Professor Kuntz ended up getting a huge course on AIDS awareness (and consequently, condoms for kids available) because of that argument, and the disease that was unfortunately being spread.

What are your views on this, and if you don't believe in making condoms available for sexually active teens, what would your alternative be?

[bumcheekcity]

AISA awareness should start at about 11. Children need to know about this stuff. It is impossible to teach abstainance to a teenager (esp. the male ones) so we should teach safe sex.

Condoms should be freely avaliable as I reckon that would probably help. If a pack of condoms costs $5 for 3 some teenagers mimght not bother, and do it unprotected.

[arnamenta]

I agree. Abstainence doesn't work. I say tell the kids the truth, let them have condoms, and hope for the best. It's better than lieing and knowing they'll fool around anyway.

[FUNKbrs]

This may sound silly, but I think we should teach about "alternative" sex in school, namely oral. Kids would be a lot less likely to get pregnant, and AIDS is killed by saliva and gastric juices. This way highschoolers could have as many wonderful orgasms with others as they want, without most of the dangers. Its not foolproof, but neither are condoms, although technically it is teaching abstinence (because its not "real" sex).

[Alejandro1]

At 5/26/03 12:55 PM, FUNKbrs wrote: This may sound silly, but I think we should teach about "alternative" sex in school, namely oral. Kids would be a lot less likely to get pregnant, and AIDS is killed by saliva and gastric juices. This way highschoolers could have as many wonderful orgasms with others as they want, without most of the dangers. Its not foolproof, but neither are condoms, although technically it is teaching abstinence (because its not "real" sex).

The problem with that is that you can get other sexually transmitted diseases from oral sex (like herpies). I see the logic behind your idea though, horny teens are likely to fool around anyway and oral sex would be a good way to prevent accidental pregnancies from arising. I would know this stuff because I'm a teen too.

[bumcheekcity]

At 5/26/03 01:44 PM, alejandro1 wrote:

At 5/26/03 12:55 PM, FUNKbrs wrote: This may sound silly, but I think we should teach about "alternative" sex in school, namely oral. Kids would be a lot less likely to get pregnant, and AIDS is killed by saliva and gastric juices. This way highschoolers could have as many wonderful orgasms with others as they want, without most of the dangers. Its not foolproof, but neither are condoms, although technically it is teaching abstinence (because its not "real" sex).

It doesn't sound silly, but no teen is going to stick with blow-jobs until he's 25 or whatever. You want to get as far as you can and NOW! It is a fair idea, but it probably wouldn't work. We need condoms and education about sex otherwise we will keep having AIDS.

We also need to dispel the rumours. I've heard a million rumours about sex (and I'm 14) if i believed all of them I would believe:

She can't get pregnant if its her first time.
Ditto if its done standing up.
Ditto if its the man's first time.
Ditto if you pull out before you come.
You can't get diseases if shes on the pill.

I can't be bothered to relate them all, but some kids believe them and get a nasty suprise when they're pregnant and they have AIDS.

[Jimsween]

During what I like to call "condemenius era" where they taught safe sex with condoms the AIDS rate was slowley raising. And recently there has been a lashback from that and there is now the "abstainus era" I recently found out the AIDS rate spiked sharply. I thought this was odd but it could be atributed to the fact that many teachers (espescially mine) are anti any form of contraceptives and so they tell kids to never use condoms because they dont work. This is a mind numming change from my last health teacher who talked about oral sex being an alternative to intercourse. It kind of confuses me why any conservative would want to be a health teacher.

[House-Of-Leaves]

I know my opinions aren't always popular ones, and while I see the logic behind Funk's idea, I would hate to see it happening.

From what I've seen, read and researched, oral sex is becoming more popular among teens anyway. The 'first kiss' is being replaced with the 'first blowjob', seen as being just as innocent, and that just blows my mind.

I enjoy being rather open minded and tolerant, but this is one of the things I ride the fence on. The ONLY WAY to guarantee that one will not get pregnant or an STD is abstinence, and the focus should stay on just that. Abstinence. That doesn't mean safe sex shouldn't be taught, but the -focus- should be on telling students, "Condoms don't always work. There's diseases that can kill you, and if you've gotten your period, even at 10 or 11, you can get pregnant. Condoms are NOT 100% EFFECTIVE!" Thinking that condoms are fool-proof is one of the biggest mistakes that sexually active people make. Adults, too.

AIDS awareness is something that isn't always passed on through sex, so of course that should be covered, too. That's largely been fixed through very strict screening of blood donations, and the like.

I suppose in my perfect world, I'd like to see the sanctity of sex being brought back to the lime light. It's no longer seen or portrayed as something special or something to be saved for a certain moment...it's so casual and nonchalant now that it's causing more problems than we can handle. AIDS is ...I don't know. When it first was found, I was pretty young, and when it was starting to spread, I was old enough to know and hear about it. I had a cousin I never knew die from an AIDS related complication. But I never thought that it would grow to such epidemic proportions, and it would start striking down my friends. Two of my best friends are now HIV positive, and by God, I can't help but think that if they'd been more educated on the issue, it wouldn't have happened.

[bumcheekcity]

House, trying to teach teenagers abstainence is like trying to get Dubya to speak in proper comprehendable sentences. It ent guna work.

From the age of puberty, it is the only thing on a boys mind to get laid. We can't help it, it's just the way we are. We may as well teach them how to do it safely instead of preach to them to not do it, because you know they will ignore us.

[Jimsween]

At 5/26/03 05:15 PM, bumcheekycity wrote: House, trying to teach teenagers abstainence is like trying to get Dubya to speak in proper comprehendable sentences. It ent guna work.

From the age of puberty, it is the only thing on a boys mind to get laid. We can't help it, it's just the way we are. We may as well teach them how to do it safely instead of preach to them to not do it, because you know they will ignore us.

This is exactly why I hate my health teacher. He constantly tells us that porn is bad and masturbation is bad and even thinking about girls is bad. And for some reason he knows that sex isnt as good if your not married to that person, but he has only had sex with one person in his life.

[bumcheekcity]

At 5/26/03 05:52 PM, jimsween wrote: This is exactly why I hate my health teacher. He constantly tells us that porn is bad and masturbation is bad and even thinking about girls is bad. And for some reason he knows that sex isnt as good if your not married to that person, but he has only had sex with one person in his life.

Don't loose sleep Jim. He's probably just bitter 'cos he only got laid by one girl in his life. If you're feeling really mean,walk past him with a group of friends and speak in stage whispers about the brilliant blowjob you got from your bird.

Bound to piss him off.

[MindThrasher]

I think AIDS awareness should be taught by parents. Look, we all know that AIDS is, basically, a sex diseas. Even though it can be obtained other ways. If a teacher who has a bad opinion on sex, than taht kid's views on procreation could be entirely fucked up.

I've sat through AIDS classes, and half the teachers teaching this stuff, hav no idea what they're talking about.

BTW, AIDS is not a homosexual disease, although AIDS is most common in homosexual males. Just thought you should know that!

-Jeff

[bumcheekcity]

At 5/26/03 05:52 PM, jimsween wrote: This is exactly why I hate my health teacher. He constantly tells us that porn is bad and masturbation is bad and even thinking about girls is bad. And for some reason he knows that sex isnt as good if your not married to that person, but he has only had sex with one person in his life.

Don't lose sleep young Jim. He's just bitter cos he never got it until he was 25. If you're feeling bored, walk past him with a group of mates and talk about the brilliant lay you got last night.

Bound to piss him off. Use graphic detail.

[bumcheekcity]

The first time I posted that, I got redirected to www.celebdirect.com. Does anyone know how the fuck that happened?