Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Miami Herald - Wednesday, May 3, 2000
Shari Rudavsky
Males occupied about half the seats, but that didn't dissuade Taylor, a motivational speaker from Philadelphia, from her vision.
"Everyone in this room is pregnant. Yes, you heard me correctly," Taylor said. "I'm not talking about a physical pregnancy. I'm talking about giving birth to your calling in life."
Pregnancy, both real and spiritual, headed the agenda Tuesday at Teen Empowerment Day at the Omni Auditorium at Broward Community College's North Campus in Coconut Creek on Tuesday. For about three hours the teens, from all of Broward's high schools, were bombarded with the message to abstain from sex and, failing that, to use protection.
The message hit home with at least some of the adolescents gathered to watch skits, rap performances and speeches geared toward pregnancy and HIV prevention.
"Abstinence. They really stressed that word. That's something that I'm going to do, because out of all the counties, Broward is third," said Corey Harrell, a junior at Boyd Anderson High School in Lauderdale Lakes, referring to his home county's state ranking in the number of teen births.
In 1998, almost 2,000 babies were born to Broward teens, 161 of those to girls 15 or younger. The Broward Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, which sponsored the day, hopes to reduce that number by one-third by 2002.
"You can have intimacy but not intercourse," said Stephen Fallon,director of education for CenterOne, a Broward AIDS agency.
He warned teens who do have sex to always use condoms.
"Condoms are very likely to fail on the nights you don't use them. They'll work better if you use them all the time," he said.
The frank talk at times prompted hoots or nervous giggles. But many of the teens sat seriously and absorbed the information. "It scares you in a way," said Boyd Anderson junior Christopher Nance, mulling over Taylor's plea for them to pursue their own dreams rather than risking a pregnancy. "It can determine whether or not you can make it in life."
Hallandale High junior Terehas Shillingford, a 16-year-old mother of a 9-month-old boy, found that the day's activities reinforced her own experience, something she has tried to share with her friend and classmate Jessica Leger, just as she has shared baby pictures.
"I know it's either safe sex or abstinence," said 17-year-old Jessica. "I know it's hard to have a baby at that age."
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