New York City is spending $203,000 on a new program that aims to standardize the sex education received by middle schoolers and high school students, the New York Post reports (nypost.com, 3/16).
Since January, the Health Smart program has trained teachers from 44 of the city’s 590 schools with middle-grade students, while 120 of the system’s high schools have sent teachers for training. Officials expect the new curriculum to be fully implemented by June 2009.
The new curriculum includes lessons on nutrition, physical activity, birth control and sexually transmitted infections. According to the article, schools under the Health Smart program would be required to provide middle school and high school students with six lessons focused specifically on HIV/AIDS each year. However, the Post reports that Health Smart is not yet mandatory, and no system has yet been put in place to monitor which schools are teaching the program.
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Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
