According to the YRBS, 49 percent of the 60 percent of middle and high school population in the CNMI had done sexual activities.
“When I saw the data, I was quite alarmed because in Hawaii, we’re the lowest in the nation with 39 percent who have passed sexual intercourse,” said Julienne Nakano, Hawaii’s department of Education HIV resource teacher.
Nakano, one of the speakers in yesterday’s PSS sponsored workshop for teachers and counselors on sexual education, HIV prevention education and prevention on unintended pregnancy, said the problem should be addressed collaboratively by all sectors.
“This is a community issue not just an issue of a parent, school, church and government,” she said.
Sharleen Crisostimo, PSS Science Health Learning Community chairperson and Hopwood Junior High School Science teacher, reported the increased number of students who have had sexual intercourse in 2007.
In the survey, Crisostimo showed to 30 participants of the workshop at Pacific Islands Club, that from 48.4 percent in 2005, it raised to 49.7 percent of high school students who have experience in sexual behavior.
In middle school, the report also showed an increase from 15 percent in 2005 to 18.4 percent in 2007.
Public Health’s HIV/STD treatment and resource program manager, John Dax Moreno, said there were no reports of students infected by HIV disease in CNMI.
However, the sexually transmitted disease has infected the “youth group” whose age ranges from 15 to 26.
Moreno did not confirm that some students were infected by STD but he says a 15-year-old teenager was infected by Chlamydia.
“Young people are getting infected,” he said.
Moreno warned infertility may be a bigger problem.
Both Nakano and Crisostimo agreed that family plays an important role in addressing the problem surrounding teenagers.
“Parents should be the primary source of information, teachers and the PSS are second support. We can start as early as kindergarten by opening up communication with our children on sexual risk behavior,” Nakano said.
Crisostimo said that parents should established trust and confidence with their children and promote good character.
The problem on sexual behaviors, they said, can be attributed not only to peer pressure, parents, social norm, community but it can be “economic” and combination of other factors.
PSS Associate Commissioner for Curriculum and Instruction Jackie Quitugua said the objective of the workshop is to provide training for teachers and counselors from elementary to high school based on the Centers for Disease Control agreement.
“We are building local capacity within our school. This means we are going to support our trainers the intensive training they need to have both content and the strategy. This one is focused mainly on sexuality education and HIV prevention education and prevention on unintended pregnancy,” she told Variety.
Quitugua said there has been progress in the prevention aspect based on the data and surveillance data; youth risk behavior survey, health indicators and school health profile.
Proof to that, she said, the PSS just received a congratulatory letter from Center for Disease Control for meeting the requirement in the school health profile.
