SOUTH GATE : Sex Risks Stressed in Student Program

At South Gate High, where an average of one girl each school day reports pregnancy and losing one’s virginity on prom night is not uncommon, student leaders decided their peers needed a crash course on abstinence and safer sex.

The leadership group produced “Face the Facts--It Could Be You,” an hourlong multimedia brushup on pregnancy, AIDS and other consequences that sexually active teens face, and presented it to 800 students two days before this year’s prom.

“Everybody knows what goes on that night,” said Ezequiel Navarro, 18. “A lot of people think about having fun but they see it in the wrong way.”

Hoping to reach teens in a language they would listen to, “Face the Facts” featured a humorous but pointed theater presentation, rap music and a clip from the film “Philadelphia.”

Though the student audience hooted during the message-laden comedy sketch, many slouched in their seats and looked away while a Planned Parenthood representative told them that getting pregnant would probably mean putting their dreams on hold.

Nationwide, about 72% of all high school seniors have had sexual intercourse, according to statistics from Planned Parenthood. In Los Angeles County, a teen-ager gives birth every 7 1/2 minutes.

South Gate High documented 121 pregnancies between July, 1993, and April of this year, said school nurse Wilma Wilson.

“It’s real shocking because we have the highest attendance rate in the district and the lowest dropout rate, but we have 150 girls pregnant,” said Cindy Rosales, 17, senior class vice president. “I have five friends here at school who are pregnant and one who had her baby yesterday.”

Audience members agreed that “Face the Facts” was an effective way to get the message across: There is no such thing as safe sex.

“School classes on health and sex education don’t get it across as well,” said Navarro. “Nobody pays attention because they’re so boring. . . . Everybody feels it won’t happen to them. (This program) makes you realize it can happen and you should be careful.”

High schools should provide more programs to educate students on teen pregnancy, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases in the same way junior high schools stress awareness of drug and alcohol abuse, organizers said.

“It’s just ignorance,” said Rosie Ayala, 18, one of the organizers. “We need to change it to awareness.”

Ayala, who is student body vice president, doubted the program would deter some of her classmates from having unsafe sex on prom night. But, she added, surely students would now think about more than romance at the annual dance: “They’ll have (the program) in mind. ‘It Could Be You.’ ”