The Sex Talk

"Hey, don't worry man. This is Switzerland" said Jason. I just hoped Jason was trying to be the 'Big man' in front of his friends and wasn't serious. I was having a discussion with a group of twelve 16-18yr old boys about sexually transmitted diseases. "What exactly do you mean by 'Hey, it's Switzerland?" I asked Jason. "You know, we're in the mountains man. It's not like a big city. No diseases here man." I stared hard at Jason for a moment. He sunk into his chair, a guilty smile on his face. "You really don't mean that do you?" I asked. "C'mon man, it's safe here. I'll be fine." I soon formed a plan on how to tackle this new found ignorance.

"Just for the record, this small village, used to be one of the biggest party places in Switzerland. It was also a hot-spot for intravenous drug users" I said. There was a chorus of protests at that statement. "You're bullshitting us. You're just trying to scare us...aren't you?" said Jason. I shrugged my shoulders, "Believe what you want. You seem to know this village better than me."

My plan wasn't to scare them, but to open their eyes, so I brought out my secret weapon. It was a chart that a teacher at another school had put together. This chart was a visual demonstration of all the students at a particular school of who had slept with whom. It linked all the people together ie If student A slept with student B, and student B had slept with student C, then in effect student A has slept with student C. The graph pretty quickly got way out of hand and in no time at all, every single sexually active kid was connected in some way to every other sexually active kid at the school.

The kids were horrified. If it wasn't such a serious subject, it would almost have been humorous to see the stunned expressions. I than made the matter even worse by suggesting that if student A visits another school for whatever reason, eg a sporting event, then student A is now connected with a whole new chart of every sexually active person from that other school. There were more gasps of horror. Even Jason was speechless.

Within one hour of that class, the health center was inundated with students requesting a STD check. It wasn't just from kids who had attended my little presentation. Word had spread throughout the school and everyone was worried. There was even a couple that were not sexually active, but just wanted a check, just to be sure. I did explain to this couple that they don't need to be tested, if they are not and never have been sexually active.

I never expected my talk to be so effective. Kids these days seem to think they know it all, but now I realize that I'm probably guilty of thinking they know it all. If I'm asked to have another talk with the kids, I suppose I could share with them some stories from my days working in a London walk in STD clinic. I can picture the kids faces now, and I can't help myself from smiling.