Last Wednesday morning, Kansas University health educators stood in front of a classroom of Lawrence High School students answering questions about sexually transmitted infections.
But the real education came after their presentation when the students Health News — unabashedly — answered questions posed to them about the prevalence of STIs.
Yes, they said, students talk about STIs. Some of it comes in the way of quick-spreading rumors that are whispered in school hallways. And, some of it is in the form of distressed secrets shared among friends.
Either way, teenagers have STIs, even in Lawrence.
“A lot of people go to parties, drink, don’t realize what they are doing, don’t use a condom … and the next day they are like ‘Oh, my God,’ ” said Alexah Gudenkauf, an LHS sophomore.
Still, Gudenkauf, like many of the other girls in the class, was surprised by a study that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released this month. One in four teenage girls has at least one sexually transmitted disease, the CDC reported.
The study, the first of its kind Health News, tested 838 girls between the ages of 14 and 19 for sexually transmitted infections and included both those who said they were sexually active and those who said they were not.
“I didn’t know it was that high; I didn’t know it was that common,” Gudenkauf said. “But, I understand why.”
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