Miami Herald - October 14, 2004
Jennifer Mooney Piedra, jmooney@herald.com

The dangers of sexual intercourse were never taught to ninth-grader Kevin Vixama.

That is, until now.

Kevin, 15, along with about 100 other teenage boys from a handful of Miami-Dade middle schools, learned about the harsh realities of sexually transmitted diseases during the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Teen Youth Summit held Friday at Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah.

From chlamydia to syphilis, AIDS to herpes, no topic was off-limits.

"Sex is a serious thing," Reginald Carlson, a lead public advisor with the Miami-Dade County Health Department, told the boys. "If you're at the age when you think you can have sex, you have to deal with the consequences."

Officials of the 5000 Role Models project want to convey such messages. Created in 1993 by state Sen. Frederica Wilson while she was a School Board member, the project aims to teach at-risk youths ways of overcoming adversity. Most of its members are black.

Middle school boys, ranging in age from 11 to 15, turned out for the summit dressed in white dress shirts, black pants and signature 5000 Role Models red neckties with the program's symbol of a small hand touching a large hand.

The boys came from Jan Mann Opportunity School in Opa-locka, Lake Stevens Middle in Carol City, Miami Edison Middle in Little Haiti, Robert Renick Educational Center in Opa-locka and Thomas Jefferson Middle in Biscayne Gardens.

About a dozen mentors, including school teachers, police officers, military personnel and businessmen, stood nearby dressed in similar outfits.

During the two-hour summit, Miami-Dade Schools Police Chief Gerald Darling, who is a role model in the project, urged the boys to confront any challenges they encounter in their lives.

The most immediate challenges the boys will face, Darling said, include doing well on the FCAT exam, being good to family, friends, teachers and strangers and staying away from drugs and bad habits.

"If you don't have these things within you," Darling said, [you will be led] down a path of destruction."

The discussion shifted when Carlson, from the health department, took center stage.

Speaking informally and without using the microphone, Carlson walked back and forth in between tables and chairs and said: "I'm going to be very real with you."

Carlson then proceeded to teach an extreme version of Human Growth and Development class. He explained sexually transmitted diseases, their symptoms, treatments and long-term effects.

If his speech didn't get his point across, the pictures that accompanied it probably did.

A slide show displayed close-up photographs of sexual organs ravaged by STDs.

The teens squirmed in their seats.

Carlson said it was not theory; he had seen a large number of teenagers suffering from STDs.

The 5000 Role Models project promotes abstinence but its organizers understand that some teens are sexually active. For that reason, Carlson explained the importance of contraceptives and he handed out latex condoms to the boys.

Wilson, the project's founder who is a former elementary school principal, returned to the need for abstinence.

"We cannot warn you enough," Wilson said. "You do not need to have sex. Just stop if you already started."

Sam Johnson, 13, of Hialeah resident, said he knew what to expect from the presentation but had never seen such graphic photographs.

"It was very, very helpful and informative for the future," said Sam, a student at Lake Stevens Middle. "There are lots of diseases out there and we need to be careful."

Arnaldo Leyva, a ninth-grader at Thomas Jefferson Middle, was also shocked by what he saw and agreed the presentation was effective.

"It was very graphic but very helpful at the same time," Arnaldo, 15, said. "It made me feel uncomfortable but it was worth it."

For his part, Kevin, who admitted to being sexually active, said he thought the only consequence of having sex was pregnancy.

Not anymore, though.

"I'm done with it," Kevin said. "I'm staying away from sex."

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