SOME Corporate Area secondary school students are demanding more than sex education lessons from school administrators and are actively advocating for the issuing of condoms to sexually active teens, even though the Education Ministry is not entertaining the discussion.

The ministry feels its duty is primarily to teach young people about sex and how to protect themselves.

But a group of students who spoke candidly during a youth forum at Campion College in Kingston on Friday, argued that students who are sexually active should have easy access to condoms in order to protect themselves from not only pregnancy, but HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).

"Students spend most of their time at school, so the schools should be the ones to distribute condoms. We are here five days a week," a female student from Campion said, adding that she did not feel comfortable asking her parents for condoms. "I am a virgin, but if I wanted a condom I can't ask my mother to carry me to go and buy it."

Another student from Vauxhall High School said that while she did not think condoms should be distributed freely in schools, it should be made available for those who need them.

"I think that it should be made available under controlled [circumstances]," she told the scores of students representing more than 20 high schools in Kingston and St Andrew and Spanish Town that packed the Campion College auditorium.

A male student agreed. He also noted that making condoms available in schools could also act as a deterrent for students who are contemplating having sex, since they may not feel comfortable approaching a guidance counsellor for condoms.

One student from Children First Youth Wellness Centre in Spanish Town contended that since it's a known fact that some students were having sex, arming them with condoms would only help to reduce the risk they are exposed to when they have unprotected sex.

"We as young people age 16, 17 and 18 are having sex, so when people come into our schools and distribute condoms they are protecting us," she said.

The students' calls for condoms to be made available in schools came one day after data released from the Ministry of Health's National HIV/STI Programme revealed that AIDS is the second leading cause of death in persons 15-24. Additionally, it also showed that there were over 200 reported AIDS cases among adolescents as of June last year, while HIV infection doubled in the age group 10 to 24 between 1995 and 2006.

In terms of sexual practices, another study, the 2008 Knowledge, Attitude, Beliefs and Practices (KABP), showed that the age group 15 to 19 years had the highest number of non-regular sex partners in the 12 months.

In January, social advocate Lawman Lynch's calls for the Ministry of Education to distribute condoms in schools trigged a firestorm of criticism.

The following month, however, Education Minister Andrew Holness poured cold water on Lynch's suggestion, noting that the ministry's position against the distribution of condoms in schools was guided by government's policy which states that only health officials can issue prophylactics on a wide scale; the law which states that no person under 16 can consent to having sex; and the position of stakeholders against the suggestion.

And on Friday Christopher Graham, national co-ordinator for HIV/AIDS in the Ministry of Education, reiterated Holness' position.

"... The Ministry of Education is not in the business of distributing condoms in schools" and would not be doing so any time in the near future, Graham said.

"We would prefer to empower students to make informed choices," he said. "We believe that schools are no-sex zones."

Some students at the forum agreed with Graham, saying that condoms had no place in schools. A male student from Kingston College said giving students condoms would be sending them the wrong message.

"When you come and give us condoms, that is actually giving us the go-ahead to have sex," he said. "All they have to do is find a girl to use it on and nowadays it's not very hard."

Another boy said, "I think that if the government starts to distribute condoms in schools they should just cancel classes and have sex."

Meantime, the students also spoke openly about reasons they were not using protection.

"Most of the students when they are breaking their virginity, they don't want to use a condom because they said it is hotter," one student explained.

Another student suggested that adolescents opt not to use a condom because "it turns off the attraction" during an encounter.

Others said they engaged in sexual relations due to the fact that their peers seem to have transformed early sexual debut into an acceptable behaviour.

"Virgin nah wear again," a female student said, as she described the reaction of her schoolmates when she told them she was a virgin.

The age of sexual debut is 13 for boys and 15 for girls.

In addition, one male student complained that students did not feel that the campaigns targeted at youth were effective."We not hearing it enough for it to be in our subconscious," he said. "Everybody have to be saying it all the time. "There were also suggestions that the messages should be promoted by their own peers in a manner they can relate to.

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