Program Helps Teens Go The Abstinence Route

Three teenage girls believe the Go Girls program helps them stand up to peer-pressure to have sex.

"It reaffirmed the values that I already held, and made me feel that I'm not alone in the world," 17-year-old Nicole Brand said.

Brand and 14-year-old Marneka Brown and Jasmine Wilson all attended a graduation ceremony Sunday for Go Girls of Highlands County, a pregnancy prevention program facilitated by the Highlands County Teen Pregnancy Prevention Alliance. Eleven girls from Avon Park Middle School and Sebring High School began the eight-week program and seven finished.

Go Girls abstinence education classes are offered to 12- to 17-year-old girls in all county middle and high schools, and at Central Florida Healthcare, said Kelly Jean Johnson, Heartland Rural Health Network health planning director.

The three teenagers laughed and joked as Kathy MacNeill, an educator with the group, read aloud anonymous statements that each girl wrote about the other girls in the class. They also talked about what they learned from the Go Girls classes.

Brown said she has changed, and now watching her friends' behavior makes her feel sad.

"I don't hang around with them anymore because they're doing things my mind isn't even on," Brown said.

Brand said friends have told her that she was naïve to believe that someone won't have sex before marriage.

Each teenager said they know several girls who already have children, and they said that most of the teenage fathers aren't in the picture any longer.

Last year the Heartland Rural Health Network received a $500,000 five-year grant through the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

The grant will fund several abstinence education programs.

During this fiscal year, program coordinators expect to reach over 3,000 girls and boys through the different programs.

When Go Girls began two years ago by Lake Placid resident Susan Christman, it was funded through a different grant. Over 100 girls have completed the program classes so far.

The Avon Park Middle School Go Girls classes began at the end of January. Each afterschool class lasts about two hours. The classes are taught from a federally approved curriculum.

The girls all said their goals include college.

"I want to go to school and become a pediatrician," Brown said.

MacNeill said getting a college diploma is important. She said that jobs that used to go to "kids" without a degree are now going to college graduates.

"What would happen to school if you got pregnant?" MacNeill asked.