By Samantha Dume’ and Samantha Reyes Lopez
What exactly is Teen PEP? Teen PEP, also known as Teen Prevention Education Program, is a health program designed to educate teenagers on how to make responsible sexual decisions in order to prevent illnesses.
In order to be a part of this incredible program, students’ grades must be at an A/B average and students go through a ‘test’ to see if their skills fit the program. Teen PEP teaches students how to prevent the risks of receiving illnesses/viruses such as HIV, STDs, AIDS, chlamydia, herpes, syphilis, and much more. One of the activities created for this program is word/definition matching.
This program also involves skits! It is a way of testing the students’ engagement and listening skills, which are then followed up by asking questions to see who was paying attention.
Recently Teen PEP worked together with the freshmen and sophomore classes in workshops that helped raise awareness of rape and toxic relationships. These workshops happened over two days during their gym periods where students worked in small groups with two Teen PEP leaders.
With every workshop, there are skits to give a bit more detailed explanation on possible incidents concerning the issue at hand. Teen PEP 2 presented four different pairs of teens at a party. These teens were drinking and the scene describes out of all the pairs only one is raped. The others girls handle the situation accordingly, resisting the act as even the guy goes as far as saying it would not be a good idea. The scene is very dramatic with realistic acting done.
Soon after the scene, they broke off into small groups of 7-12 students along with two PEP leaders who gave out information on the importance of how to handle rape. They gave advice on what to do according to law if you or a friend has gotten raped or even committed said act.
One of the first activities was reading note cards with definitions on indecent acts that can occur during rape. They explained that not every rape victim would come forward to accuse the attacker and that not every rape victim is a girl.
The next day of the workshop, Teen PEP leaders explained scenes that were made up of characters who got molested and how they handled the situation. One was a teenage boy who got sexually assaulted by older guys. The teenage boy describes the situation as embarrassing, which is the case for many males in America.
Another scene is a girl who is shut off from school and any kind of social life. Instead of reporting the incident to the police or someone trusted she chose to remain silent. This choice evidently ruined her state of mind and relationships with others.
Another workshop done by Teen PEP included talking about toxic relationships. They talked about different types of abusive relationships, not only physical, but emotionally abuse, as well.
With another series of skits to help enlighten more to the serious topic, a real life situation was read out loud to everyone. The situation is read from a girl’s point of view. She starts off in a wonderful relationship with an older guy but after a while, things get rocky. He starts shouting and she tells herself it’s not her fault. Soon things take a turn for the worse when he starts to physically hit her. At this point, she had closed herself off from people she used to be close with. The girl starts to believe it is all her fault and she’s to blame. When she finally opened her eyes, the situation was brought to the attention of trusted adults.
Ultimately she walked away and learned a hard lesson. In the groups it was discussed why many don’t recognize the abuse and why they don’t come forward with it. The top two answers are blinded by love and the fear of others getting hurt.
Teen PEP does their best to keep learning about serious topics, like rape and toxic relationships. The truth is hard but incidents like these occur every day to not only teens but to everyone. Teen PEP is helping raise awareness to difficult issues that are almost every day on the news.
Teen PEP is not only a program involving communication skills but every member of the group has a strong bond that is very noticeable. Last but not least, when the members are done teaching their lesson, they introduce themselves by their first names finishing off with a saying, “AND WE’RE TEEN PEP!” loud and proud, putting smiles on the faces of every student in the room.
