Peoria Public Schools are bringing a new district-wide sex education curriculum to classrooms this month.
This is the first time District 150 schools have taught the same material, which includes contraception and abstinence.
Von Steuben Middle School just completed the series of six lessons this week.
Leah Royer, a youth prevention counselor at Children's Home, is teaching a class of well-behaved 7th graders. Seven different forms of birth control are projected on the screen behind her. Some methods are more foreign than others...
"They also make a female condom....I know inquiring minds are so super curious about that," Royer says to the class, after a few perplexed glances.
The content she’s teaching is based off a national curriculum, called Family Life and Sexual Health -- or FLASH. It’s designed to help youth make healthy choices when it comes to sex. Royer says that’s a big deal, in a county where rates of Sexually Transmitted Infections and teen pregnancies are significantly higher than the state and national rates.
"And it’s really important to you guys because the majority of those cases are centered in 61603, 04 and 05 zip codes," Royer said. That comment was quickly received by chimes of "I’m in 03! I’m in 05!”
Several students in the class say they have friends or relatives that got pregnant as teenagers. Like Darius Thomas:
“My sister,” Thomas said. "She got pregnant at 18. I don’t think she was ready.”
And Imonti Taylor:
“My brother’s girlfriend and my cousin,” Taylor said.
Leah Royer says this matters to the whole community.
“High rates of STIs, high rates of teen pregnancy, these have an impact, whether it be a financial impact to the community, or an emotional impact to our youth," Royer said. "These issues, they’re not just within zip codes and they don’t trickle out.”
Along with the FLASH curriculum, the lessons include information about where to get contraception and free screenings for STIs. Illinois Law mandates these services are offered without parental consent or knowledge:
“I was not aware of that, and that surprised me the most,” student Dezyre Thompson said.
Thompson says she thinks the District’s new sex ed classes will help teens make better decisions because they are being armed with basic knowledge they didn’t have before.
The FLASH initiative was driven by Peoria County Health Department data that reports the high occurrences of STIs and teen pregnancy. It's also in accordance with state law signed in 2013 that requires schools to provide accurate information on birth control and sexually transmitted infections.
The program aims to tackle the rates of STIs and teen pregnancy. But before those numbers can go down, Leah Royer says, there will likely be a spike in the data as more teens get tested.
“Those are only the reports of the youth that actually were tested and received a positive diagnosis," Royer said. "So, we’ve got lots more than just the kiddos that are reflected in that data.”
Royer says it may take a decade to significantly reduce sexually transmitted disease and teen pregnancy. District 150 and the Health Department are partnering on the new curriculum and plan to use the classes as a benchmark for the statistics. They’ll start collecting the information with sixth graders this year.
2013 Peoria County Health Department data shows a more than 36 percent birth rate in mothers between 15-19 years old. That’s ten percent higher than the national rate.