Scary statistic: Sexually active teens on the rise
October 29, 2018
Sexually active teens at Morton East High School are more likely to participate in unprotected sex rather than protected sex; about half of students (51 percent of those surveyed) may be having unprotected sex.
In the U.S. we know that this generation of teens doesn’t wait for marriage to come around to have sex. What we don’t know is that every year in the U.S we get about 20 million new sexually transmitted infections. 46 % of those high school students who have engaged in sexual activity have come across being at risk of getting STI’s. When teens say that they use protection when they participate in sexual activity they think that because they use condoms they won’t be at risk of catching and STI or STD, but condoms aren’t 100% safe. Many teens aren’t aware that they have and STI or STD do to studies at rush university they say that most people who have herpes have no symptoms at all or if they do it’s very mild. In a survey of 120 Morton East students, 62 have had unprotected sex, 47 have used protection, and 11 have not participated in sexual activity.
“Although condoms aren’t 100 % safe I’m glad that our school does handout condoms to students like us who participate in sexual activity,“ an anonymous senior girl student said.
Teens who don’t have any don’t have any knowledge or if they don’t know where to go for condoms decide to just have unprotected sex.
“We have many teens that come into our clinic and they are scared because they claim that they didn’t know where to buy condoms, and they had unprotected sex and their partner had some sort of infection that they were never aware of,” Linda Medical Assistant from PCC clinic, said.
When teenagers have unprotected sex, they are not only at risk of getting an STI or an STD but also getting their partner pregnant.
“Students come to me on school day morning panicking asking us if we have a birth control pill because they were participating unprotected sex or because they had run out of condoms, but they didn’t think nothing will happen but since they aren’t 18 we aren’t allowed to give out to them we would need parents’ permission,” School Nurse said.
When teens go to the nurse asking for plan b pills and aren’t allowed to get them it forces them to tell their parents because they act quickly and want to receive the pill.
“If you ever come to me telling me that you need plan B pills for someone that you had sex with I’m going to assume you’re asking me for them because you weren’t thinking and didn’t have protected sex to begin with and not only that but you’re too young to have a kid and even more of catching an STI or STD, it would make me upset knowing you aren’t doing the things we talked about,” Cicero mom Leticia Ramirez said.
Joanna • Nov 7, 2018 at 12:47 pm
unbelievable how the stats and percents are so high
Desiree • Nov 7, 2018 at 12:45 pm
It’s crazy how many people don’t use protection, smh.
Jasmine • Nov 2, 2018 at 9:41 am
I did not expect for so many teens to be having unprotected sex and risk catching a disease or getting pregnant. It’s a good thing that Morton has a clinic in which students could seek help
Gerardo Ramirez • Oct 31, 2018 at 9:20 pm
To be honest i am ashamed to be part of this generation because apparently kids these days want to make kids left and right; worse of all the male partner most of time just leaves the women to take care of the child themselves; to be frank i hate this generation and i wish i was never part of it because my generation is too laid back and irresponsible.
Jennifer Uribe • Oct 31, 2018 at 7:50 pm
I agree with this article because it’s important to protect yourself. It’s so important for students to go to the clinic if they have any questions about their health or something that they did. The nurse and the parent from the article are right because there can be consequences if you have unprotected sex at such a young age. Many teenagers are not aware of what can happen.
Tony • Oct 31, 2018 at 11:15 am
I agree with this article! Good job
Cesar Martinez • Oct 31, 2018 at 9:15 am
I agree with the nurse and the parent in the article, having unprotected sex especially at an early age is really risky to do.