Voluntary Testing Lets D.C. Students Learn About and Be Tested for STDs

IN THE NEXT school year, District public high school students will learn more than the three R's. They're going to learn about and be tested for STDs: sexually transmitted diseases. We applaud the District's decision to offer this voluntary program.

The statistics behind this effort show why it is necessary. Of the 3,000 students at eight high schools tested in a pilot program last year, 13 percent tested positive for an STD, usually gonorrhea or chlamydia. According to the D.C. Health Department, 4 out of 5 infected students show no symptoms. Left untreated, these two curable diseases could lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, urinary tract infections or infertility. Even more alarming, students with STDs are five times more at risk for contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, which has no cure.

The Health Department will visit 20 high schools over the next academic year with the goal of reaching 10,000 of the District's 12,000 high school students. Students and parents are notified by the school and can opt out of the STD presentations and testing. Each school visit will last about a week, and each 45-minute STD education session will have no more than 30 students. At the conclusion of the lesson, students will be given a paper bag containing a plastic cup for a urine sample to be tested, if the student so chooses. (They are not tested for HIV.) To maintain the anonymity of those who opt for testing, all students must return the bag and cup to waiting Health Department personnel. They also provide the department with a password that they will use when they call to get their results a week or so later. Those with a positive STD result who don't call will be notified by the Health Department. Free treatment (a single dose of an oral antibiotic) will be made available at the school or an STD clinic. Students also may receive treatment from their private physicians.

At that stage there will no parental notification because the city's public health law prohibits the department from sharing results with anyone other than the patient. But we hope students and their parents or guardians will talk about the responsibilities and consequences of sexual activity. Whether parents like it or not, many teenagers are having sex. That's why it is imperative that they have all the information possible to make wise choices and to protect themselves.