Alternative Sex

After the 20 or so Source members settle in a circle on this Wednesday evening at the Source office, Amson asks, "Did anyone have any teachable moments?"

She even carries condoms in her wallet in case she needs to give a demonstration. "I've been stopped in class from going too far into detail," says the Blake High School sophomore. "When I'm at school and kids have questions and teachers refuse to answer them, at least I can give a straight answer."

Once she's there, Source performers, four of them, pack into the program's big beige van, a hand-me-down from Sarasota's Source program, which started 20 years ago.

"See, this is about intervention," Robinson says. "I'm trying to teach my kids about sex, about drugs, about violence. Anything that can help."

Freshman Year depicts three young girls' journeys through their first year in high school, where alcohol use and unprotected sex end in pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections - or STIs - and depression.

When the characters find themselves at a health clinic - one for a pregnancy test, the other being treated for an STI - hushed cries of "Dang" and "Aw, man" arise from students in the audience, and from teachers too.

After the play, performers ask audience members what they thought about the characters' actions, motivations and how they could have prevented the outcomes.

"I wanted it to be a creative and positive venue for young people to both learn and to, themselves, teach their peers about information related to healthy decision-making using theater as the vehicle," said Curran, an actor by trade.

Unlike the Sarasota program that has found support from its county commissioners, Tampa Source must now rely on grants and donations to survive.

A stream of Source teens, their parents, a sex therapist, various educators and the chair of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida testified at public hearings, but "it seemed as if they already had their minds made up about it," said Source member Caitlin, "like they weren't even listening to us."

Quoted in a September St. Petersburg Times article, Storms, who would not comment for this article, said the School Board could find others to address topics covered by Source.

Terry Kemple, the former executive director for Florida Right to Life and a founding member of the Brandon-based Community Issues Council, favors abstinence-only sex education.

"It's wrong for any of our money to be used for that. "(The commission's decision) was a vote to protect our young people from those who would really take advantage of the fact that (they're) going through a time of sexual questioning," he said.

Since the vote, Curran said, "we're actively looking for funding down every avenue." And Planned Parenthood plans to reapply for county funding next year.

"Once we start a program, we like to stick with that program and continue supporting it," Curran said. For now, grants and sympathetic donors help cover rent, gas, insurance and all those Cuban sandwiches. Sometimes, Source teens become donors, making wisecracks about their county government as they throw spare change into a collection jar.

On a more serious note, member Victoria Woodard wonders whether the group could save more lives under a more supportive government. "It's like they're trying to keep us from doing things we do best," she says, "which is informing."

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