PEERS TELL TENS TO SAY NO TO SEX

Students thinking about sexual activity shouldn't follow the images the media cast, said peer educators who promote abstinence in area schools.

Central High School student Matt Cardin, 17, said teen-agers can be overwhelmed by the blatant sexuality promoted by media. He is one of 38 high school juniors and seniors promoting the value of abstinence to pre-teens through the Postponing Sexual Involvement program.

Media "go as far as they can" to promote sexual images, said Cardin, who led a PSI class with Trinity Lutheran eighth-graders Thursday.

The Missouri Department of Health, University of Missouri Extension Office and Teen Pregnancy Responsibility Network offer the PSI program to seventh-graders and eighth-graders.

Teen leaders conduct five class sessions on how to withstand peer pressure and to abstain from having sex.

Forty leaders receive special training, where they are taught to use videos, question-and-answer sessions and role-playing to teach a five-week curriculum.

"I think us teen-agers can make more of an impact than most adults," said Cardin.

Extension program

Mary Gosche of the University of Missouri Extension Service supervises PSI training and classes.

The program, in its fifth year, has succeeded because adult involvement is minimal. Students speak more freely with peers than with adults leading a discussion about sexuality.

The program has expanded from an experiment of a few students at one school to include 38 teen leaders from Central, Oak Ridge and Notre Dame high schools. Teen leaders interact with about 400 students from Louis J. Schultz, Oak Ridge, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Mary Cathedral and Trinity Lutheran schools.

Similar programs also operate in Bollinger and Perry counties.

Because the class focuses on abstinence, it generally is well received by parents, she said.

"There's no discussion at all on birth control, nothing about having sex," she said..

WANT MORE?

*WHAT: Postponing Sexual Involvement classes

*WHERE: Louis J. Schultz School

*WHEN: Throughout the day, today