Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Chicago Tribune; Thursday, December 4, 1997
Barbara Sherlock, Tribune Staff Writer.
Presenters at the Kane County Health Department's World AIDS Day Teen/Youth Conference this week laid out facts about AIDS for 125 pupils from five Aurora middle schools.
The conference was held Monday at the Township of Aurora Youth Center, 313 Gale St., in Aurora.
Conference presenters led the pupils through concepts such as choices, self-esteem and relationships. They presented facts on AIDS and sex, and their consequences.
Yvonne Pena, a disease-investigation specialist with the Kane County Health Department, said the agenda and the choice of the audience were driven by disturbing statistics.
According to the American Association for World Health, she said, four out of every 10 children in the United States will participate in sexual intercourse by the 9th grade. By the 12th grade, that number will grow to seven out of 10, with almost 25 percent having had four or more partners, she said.
For children ages 1 to 14, AIDS is the seventh-leading cause of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
"We hope that we can intervene by 60 percent or better by working with 6th, 7th and 8th graders and providing them with information before they become sexually active," said Pena.
"We need to talk about this a lot more in open forums," she said. "The kids have to be exposed to it, even if they are not sexually active. They need to feel comfortable and confident to ask questions and get the answers to keep safe, to discuss their sexuality, and to understand that AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases are out there, and they can kill you."
Two peer educators--one 22-, the other 21-years-old--from Project VIDA, an HIV-prevention youth program in Chicago, provided information about the AIDS virus in biologically plain language. Pena used plain language to discuss the forms in which sexual intimacy can be expressed and to describe the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases, such as syphilis.
More challenging for other speakers was walking the pupils through the concepts of choice, self-esteem and relationships.
"There is a difference between a choice and a decision," child-care consultant Cathy Abraham told the pupils as she presented them small slips of paper setting forth difficult scenarios. One example involved a neighbor who arrives home drunk and wants to drive the baby-sitter home. The pupils listed the baby-sitter's choices.
Paula Pope from the Illinois Department of Human Services challenged the pupils to love themselves and to "not put anything in their bodies that you did not want." Mary Hodges from the county Health Department tried to help the pupils understand relationships, love and sex.
The conference's impact was clear.
"It is telling us everything we need to know and things I didn't know" said Esteban Velazquez, a 7th grader at Simmons Middle School.
CAPTION: PHOTO: Aurora middle school pupils cheer during the Kane County Department's AIDS information conference. Tribune photo by Ed Wagner.
Copyright 1997/The Chicago Tribune. Reproduced with permission. Reproduction of this article (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the Permissions Desk, The Chicago Tribune, 435 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611.
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