Nothing was taboo.
Sex was the topic of the day for teenagers and parents who attended Lubbock's first Teen Straight Talk presentation at 10 a.m. Saturday at Grace Clinic.
Issues of teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, contraception and peer pressure were addressed by health care providers and Texas Tech counselors.
The "talk" also was presented simultaneously at three other locations throughout the city, including Guadalupe Neighborhood Center, The Bridge Community Center and the Science Spectrum, with hopes of reaching more people throughout the city.
The Lubbock Family Council, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and University Medical Center are just a few of the groups who sponsored and supported the event to educate local teenagers and parents on sexuality issues.
Yolanda Gonzaga, coordinator of the Grace Clinic presentation, said the idea of a Teen Straight Talk came about through a myriad of issues in the Lubbock community.
As a county, Lubbock has one of the highest rates of STDs and teen pregnancies.
According to a 2006 Texas Department of Health STD report, Lubbock had 1,434 cases of Chlamydia, a bacterial STD spread by vaginal, anal or oral sex.
The same report totaled 496 cases of Gonorrhea, also known as "the clap," which is a bacterial STD spread by sexual and oral contact with an infected person.
"It's a topic that we just can't keep putting away and brushing under the table," Gonzaga said, "because abstinence hasn't worked for the last twenty years that we've been talking about it so we need to just educate our kids and be responsible."
On a state level, Texas had 75,319 cases of Chlamydia in 2006, an increase from 71,621 cases since 2005.
The goal of the event, Gonzaga said, was to be an ice-breaker for teens and their parents to discuss sex and the responsibilities that come along with it.
She said the presentation was very well-received and both parents and teenagers seemed engaged and open to discussion.
Gonzaga said the committee of Teen Straight Talk hopes to conduct the presentation again, and will reconvene to discuss the issues, questions and turn out, as well as future sponsorship opportunities.
Amanda Eldredge, health educator at the Student Wellness Center, said the program was beneficial for the Lubbock community because the university provided the public with highly researched material and credible health care professionals who encounter these issues everyday.
Eldredge presented information on peer pressures at the program, and said she is a firm believer that the media is to blame for negatively influencing youth about body image and the realities of sexuality.
Adolescents and college students face some of the same influences, Eldredge said, especially within the first two years of college, when experimentation with sex, drugs and alcohol are readily available.
She said there is a possibility that high-school-aged youth in Lubbock, a college town, face greater exposure to sexually dangerous behaviors. Also, they often emulate the behaviors of the thousands of older Tech students in Lubbock, regardless of how responsible that behavior really is..
A future goal of the program is to implement it into local high school curriculums.
Gonzaga said the presentation "Big Decisions" was put together by a group of medical students as a program that has been piloted at high schools within theLubbock Independent School District. She said the programwas well received.
"We're hoping that eventually LISD board will be more open and receptive to increasing their education in high school," Gonzaga said.
The program should be taught on all campuses, said Teen Straight Talk volunteer and Coronado High School teacher, Vicke Cooper.
From a parent's perspective, Cooper said, there is definitely a need for a mandatory sexual education class and it should be started at a younger age.
Within the school setting, Cooper said, it is amazing how many students think that they are exempt and nothing bad could happen to them.
Despite the controversy behind the touchy topic of youth and sex, Cooper and many other guests said they thought the presentation was very objective and simply factual information that teenagers need to accept and utilize.
"This is definitely a very good thing," Cooper said. "It's very positive and it's just strictly that - it's informative, there's nothing persuasive."
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