by Sandra Hong
NARR
On Broome Street in SoHo, a center for teens sets itself apart from trendy neighbors with its plain concrete exterior and simple block lettered sign.
On the inside, artwork patterns the walls. This place is called The Door ... where young people come to meet friends, relax or just play a game of pingpong. It's also a place where young people can learn about sex ... when they're ready. Today, they learn about it through a game of trivia.
TAPE
Stephanie: Is HIV and AIDS the same thing. Why or why not?
Girl: It's not the same thing because HIV is in the early stages and when you have full blown AIDS it takes over your whole body. (fade under)
Stephanie: My name is Stephanie and I'm a peer educator at the Door.
Amy: My name is Amy and I'm also a peer educator at the Door.
NARR
Stephanie is 18 and Amy is 17. They are part of a group called Teens Against Sexual Ignorance. They talk about topics that Amy says teens just don't know enough about.
TAPE
Amy: Sometimes kids come sometimes and have no idea how to put on a condom. Like whats the point of goving someone a condom if they don't know how to put one on? Sometimes people don't even know whay HIV or AIDs is or what it stands for. or different thigns like that
NARR
Today the audience is small -- just two teenage girls. Besides learning about the the difference between HIV and AIDS, they also talk about birth control and ways to avoid getting STDs.
Amy says The Door is a rare type of place -- a place where young people can get straight answers about sex.
TAPE:
Amy:
Abstinence education really enforced in schools now. Health is more about our bodies and not about sex. they don't really tell tyou about what sex is how to prevent STDs and stuff like that.
NARR
There is also a lack of sex education in general in New York public schools. Programs vary from school to school -- the sex ed curriculum was written 20 years ago and is virtually ignored by schools. It is currently being updated.
Stephanie says her own experience of becoming a peer educator made her realize just how little young people know about sex.
TAPE
Like most of my sex information, honestly, i knew some of it. But most of it i learned here with my supercieor Leticia.
TAPE
Leticia: My name's Letitia Peguero ...senior health education adolescent health educator I've been here three years.
NARR (add ambience)
Peguero's office is downstairs, where The Door operates a free health clinic for teenagers. The walls of her office are decorated with a collage of colorful condoms, and diagrams of male and female anatomy in both English and Spanish. On a bookshelf behind Peguero is a boardgame called Myths and Consequences -- A game to Challenge Teenagers to Face the Consequences of Sex.
TAPE
Peguero:
Sexuality education isn't about starting in 10th grade we cshould do age appropriate sex education at age 5. whether that mean i'm agoing to learn the name of my bosdy parts .and that is sex educations it doens have to be about having sex or the act of intercourse.
Scene change
TAPE:
Shawnique: The red ones symbolize pregnancy and the blue ones mean you wer ejust lucky and didn't get pregnant
NARR
In East Harlem, Kim Sarwee's (Saaw-way) is leading a lesson about the risks of sex to a group of 7th grade girls at Central Park East Secondary School. They play a game of chance with two brown paper bags filled with blue and red candy. Her assistant, Shawnique McDaniel helps Sawree get the game started
There is more of a chance the girls will grab a red piece of candy from the sack labeled Sexual Intercourse without Contraception. Their chances are reduced when they reach into the other bag, which represents sex with contraception.
TAPE: (Sounds of girls digging into bag, paper rustling ... giggling, laughter)
NARR
The girls are between 12 and 14 years old and the game gets them laughing about a serious subject. The program is called Will Power Won't Power and it's run by an organization called Girls Inc. of New York City. Sex ed is not required at the school and these girls are here because they want to be.
They are comfortable with Sarwee and often burst out with questions with their mouths full of Doritos or cupcakes.
TAPE
Sarwee: So if you use protection is it a 100 percent effective? No. But it increases you chances of not getting pregnant
Sade: So wait, huh. What's the sense of using a condom if its not gonna stop you from getting pregnant?
Sarwee: Well that's a very good question. Why is that? What do y'all think?
NARR
At times, Will Power Won't Power is more like an open forum for the girls to talk about anything .. from how to handle boys to questions about their bodies.
The program emphasizes abstinence but it's real focus is getting young people to think about how to make responsible decisions about sex. It is seen as a model for how sex ed should be taught ...
Dr. Fred Kaeser is in charge of updating the 20-year-old sex ed curriculum for New York City public schools.
Kaeser says nearly all parents admit to needing help in educating their children about sex, whether it be through programs such as Girls Inc or The Door.
TAPE
Kaeser:
We also know this to be true -- that the most effective form of sex education is when the parent does it. and that is really great news.
TAPE
I'm Crystal Williams, Aja's mother. I'm Aja Gillis, Crystals daughter ... I'm 14.
NARR (breathe out scene)
It is almost dinnertime for Williams and her two daughters -- Aja and Idora, who is 5. Williams tries to squeeze in a load of laundry before dinnertime. Idora runs around the dining room table, where Aja and her mother are sitting across from each other. They look like mother and daughter. Aja is tall and thin and has her mother's round, hazel-flecked eyes and smooth carmel brown skin.
They are talking about sex.
TAPE: (fade up to Williams)
... and I remember asking my dad what is menstruation, and he got all flustered and told me to look it up. And i was being really young, like 9 or 10 and I think ilooked up adminsitration! (laughter) And it just didn't make sense to me ... and then there was a big gap ...
NARR
Aja realizes she has a fairly rare relationship with her mother, who's been talking about sex with her since she was little. She even watched a videotape of her own birth when she turned one.
Aja's quick to say what young people want to know about sex.
TAPE
Aja: Everything! It's very ... it's like a mystery ... you don't talk about it.
NARR
But Williams wants Aja to talk about sex ... freely, unlike Williams could when she was young.
For Aja, being able to talk openly about sex gives her the chance to think about what it means to her.
TAPE
Aja: Well, it's a lot of meanings to it, actually. there's one that you can find in the dictionary -- sexual intercourse. Then there's meaning of what's happening emotionally. .. It can mean so many different things. And actually, if you looked it up in the dictionary, it would say gender. (laughs).
NARR
Aja says she thinks about when she'll be ready to have sex.
TAPE
Aja: I talked about it with my mom before because there's this girl in class who said she had an abortion and that's very scary to think, wow, she's my age and she had an abortion. For a long time I've been saying and I still do that I'm not gonna have a baby til I'm married. But that's just saying when I'm gonna have unprotected sex, I don't know when I'm actually going to have sex. So I really don't know when. Depends on how I'm feeling.
NARR
Williams says she want Aja to be comfortable with her decisions about sex and understand not just the physical risks, but the emotional ones as well.
It's something that's not easily taught in classrooms or youth centers -- no matter how safe or comfortable they might be. But it's certainly something this mother and daughter can at least keep talking about ... openly and honestly.
For Columbia Radio News, I'm Sandra Hong