By Christopher Lenois

GARYVILLE/MT. AIRY – Seventh-graders at the Garyville/Mt. Airy Math and Science Magnet School made a pledge of sexual abstinence after participating in the Governor’s Program on Abstinence curriculum being implemented in their physical education class.

The seriousness of the pledge was underscored by the presence of Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Thomas F. Daley. Dressed in full robes, Daley administered a pledge of honesty in addition to the pledge of abstinence to approximately 70 students.

Each week, a volunteer from the Governor’s Program spent one hour talking with the students about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). More than 15 million cases of STDs occur each year. The primary age group contracting STDs is 14-24.

“The kids really looked forward to (the course),” said Ashley Rich, the physical education teacher whose class has absorbed the abstinence curriculum. “It gave them a chance to share their opinions. They don’t know a lot about these diseases and how their choices affect their future.”

Rich said she felt that overall the girls gleaned more information than the boys from the course. She added that two boys from East St. John High School who came to speak to the students had the most impact on the boys.

“Maybe for some subjects we should split up the boys and girls,” said Rich, citing one class that happened to be almost all girls seemed to be the most attentive.

The Governor’s Program on Abstinence has its origins in the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, which allocates $50 million each year for a National Abstinence Education Project. The state program, directed by Dan Richey, receives $1.6 million each year through the year 2004 to fund the program, which is currently educating 10,000 students in 20 Louisiana parishes.

Richey became interested in the program after seeing an information gap about new STDs. Parents are not able to educate their children about the risk of STDs because they are so new, he said.

“There has been an explosion of new diseases that weren’t on the horizon 20 years ago,” said Richey. “In the 70s, a parent would tell their son ‘don’t get a girl pregnant,’ or tell their daughter, ‘don’t get pregnant,’

Newer STDs are viral in nature, Richey said, and therefore contraception such as condoms are not effective in preventing their contraction.

Thus the emphasis on abstinence. Richey blames the national media for a lack of information about STDs like Herpes, Hepatitis B, and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) which causes 99.7 percent of all cervical cancer cases in the United States.

“(The national media) praising Colin Powell for being courageous when he mentioned using a condom to prevent HIV is a fraud. Condoms don’t prevent Herpes, Chlamydia or Hepatitis B.” said Richey. “Parents get their information from the evening news, and Dan Rather’s not talking about HPV. People in northern Louisiana think HPV is a pesticide, they think it’s a gas additive in southern Louisiana, and in New Orleans they think it’s a designer jean.”

Eight students were not given permission by their parents to participate in the program, said Rich. But the ones who did seemed pleased with the program.

“I think she got something out of it,” said Angela Stout, mother of Meaghan Power. “Anything that teaches the kids that you don’t have to have sex to be accepted, or cool, has got to have some good.”

“This opens our communication up another level. I hope it makes her more comfortable to speak,” said Melissa Clark, mother of Chelsea Clark.

Students who participated said their parents were active in discussing the curriculum with them, and several planned on framing the certificates they received.

“(The program) was worthwhile because we’re not getting the basics on diseases. We can get pregnancy tests, but we can’t take a test for diseases,” said seventh-grader Jennifer Jones.

“You need to be careful. There’s a lot of people who won’t really care about you and whether you get these diseases or not,” added her classmate Meaghan Power. “You could die and never have a life.”