admin @ Fri, 2006-03-03 09:01
Through educational sessions, meetings and theatrical performances, the teens try to help peers with life choices regarding sex, family and peer pressure.
Not everybody is pleased with the message that Source teens disseminate. Nor does everybody approve of the sponsor: Planned Parenthood, an organization that supports abortion rights.
Hillsborough's teen pregnancy rate is 15 percent higher than the state average, according to the county Healthy Start Coalition. And Hillsborough has the third-highest AIDS rate of Florida's 67 counties, according to the Florida Division of Disease Control.
Talking about the issues "doesn't mean we're promoting sexual promiscuity, encouraging abortions and all that stuff," says member Caitlin Wind, 15.
Source performers pack into the program's van, a hand-me-down from Sarasota's Source program. Today's destination: East County Alternative School in Plant City.
Freshman Year depicts three girls' journeys through their first year in high school, where alcohol use and unprotected sex end in pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and depression.
When the characters find themselves at a health clinic - one for a pregnancy test, the other being treated for a 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 and how they could have prevented the outcomes.
This is cache, read story here