According to the Chatham County Public Health Department, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) have been on the rise in Chatham County. In 2015, the rate of chlamydia in Chatham was 260.8 (per 100,000 population), up from 206.8 in 2012. Gonorrhea was 74.7 (per 100,000 population), up from 50.2 in 2012. These two STIs are most common in adolescents, and their increase can be seen as a negative indicator of the county’s overall adolescent sexual health.
In order to promote methods for safe sex, Lyn Smith, department chair for the Health and Physical Education Department, brought Reducing the Risk (RTR) to Northwood. This program is designed to build skills to help prevent pregnancy, STIs and HIV in high school students. The 16-session curriculum aims to inform students not only of methods of contraception that prevent pregnancy and the spread of STIs, but also of the availability of local clinics for STI testing, treatment and counseling.
Although RTR was first implemented at Northwood, the Chatham County Health Department saw improvement in students’ knowledge of the subjects over the course of the program and chose to expand its implementation to other Chatham County schools.
“In an ideal world, I think all of our students wouldn’t have sex until they were married, and it [would be] with somebody they really love,” health teacher Cameron Vernon said. “But the statistics and studies show that kids are having sex before they’re married. So, with that being said, I think it’s very important for our kids to have methods of contraception, to have the knowledge of what they should use and also to have all those forms of testing so that they can stay safe and keep their partners safe.”
The information provided to students encourages them to get tested for STIs every three to six months if they are sexually active. Junior Brenda Ruto agrees with this advice.
“If you’re sexually active, you need to have that level of maturity to get tested, because you want to be able to keep up your own health as well as the health of the other people you’re having sex with,” Ruto said.
However, there is a stigma around getting tested. A 2013 study done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that of about 4,000 young adults, only 11.5 percent had been tested for an STI in the previous year. Students believe this is due to misinformation about the process of getting tested, such as parents or friends finding out or the costs being too high.
“I think some people are afraid because they might be sexually active, but maybe their family doesn’t know about it because of morals or rules,” sophomore Taylor Puckett said. “Maybe they think their friends will judge them. I think a lot of social boundaries or just their families are stopping them from getting tested.”
Others think that people avoid getting tested to protect their social standing.
“I think a lot of teenagers are afraid of hurting their image,” senior Joe Friedman said. “They’re very protective of it and they want to make sure that that information doesn’t get out, because they don’t want their friends to look at them differently.”
Some students even believe that people avoid getting tested to protect themselves from the results.
“They’re afraid of finding out,” senior Chance Gustafson said. “I mean, I don’t want to know if I have chlamydia. It’s scary.”
Nurse Melissa Lassen wants the student body to be informed about the truth to getting tested.
“The best source available and the easiest route is through our public health department,” Lassen said. “It’s little to no cost to a student to come in and [the results] are confidential information. They are not shared with anyone other than the patient; that includes the parent.”
The clinic goes beyond solely testing for STIs.
“They can also talk with the student at that time about safe practices to prevent those sexually transmitted infections,” Lassen said. “And if the student is interested, they can even talk about birth control options.”
The Chatham County Public Health Department determines fees on a sliding scale, meaning cost is dependent on the ability to pay. For most students, any income they earn is too low to prompt a fee, so they will not be charged.
According to the Journal of Adolescent Health, young people between the ages of 15 and 25 account for half of all the newly diagnosed STIs in the U.S. Nearly half of those who had sex and had not been tested believed they were not at risk.
Sports Medicine teacher Jackie Harpham thinks that despite the tendency for students to feel “young and free and reckless,” they should take care of their bodies, and getting tested is part of that.
“I think that you get one body for the rest of your life, and it’s important to realize that the decisions you make now can have an impact down the line,” Harpham said. “Getting tested is big. It’s the only way you know for sure that you’re healthy and safe and it also is going to impact all the people you chose to have relationships with.”
Harpham encourages students who are sexually active to take responsibility for their actions.
“I think it’s really important that if you are deciding that you are old enough and responsible enough and mature enough to have sex that you also need to be mature enough to make sure you’re staying safe, and part of that is getting tested and encouraging any partners that you have to get tested as well,” Harpham said. “It’s easy for kids to think that they’re ready to have sex and to act like an adult, but if it means that you can’t also be mature enough to go to Planned Parenthood or go the doctor and get tested and have those tough conversations, then maybe you aren’t ready.”
Senior Tatyana Barrett put it simply.
“If teenagers have the balls to have sex, then they should have the balls to go get tested as well,” Barrett said. “If more people felt comfortable getting tested, then we would have a lot less problems with STIs.”
– By Lanna Read
