Topics that stood out more to those that went through 10th grade are euthanasia, abortion, and drugs.
I hate it with the abortion issue how she makes it sound like it's okay and it is not a human being that you are dealing with.  I am extremely against it and I cannot stand to deal with people who act that way towards abortion.  She makes us have debates on that kind of thing and you don’t get to choose what side you’re on and it makes me furious.  I felt the same way about euthanasia.  When it came to drugs or sex, the teacher made them feel like it doesn’t matter what you do, just so long as you take precautions.

Did the teacher ever make the statement that what is said in class stays in class?
Yes, often.

Were you encouraged strongly to talk to your parents about questions that arose out of class?
No, we were not encouraged to talk to our parents.  We actually had to stand, raise our right hand, and take an oath not to talk about anything that happens in health outside of class.  She encouraged us to talk to her personally and to share with the class.  If you had an opinion that was different than hers she would get right in your face and ridicule you in front of everyone.

How did you interpret the oath?
We thought that it meant we could not tell anyone including our parents.

Why do you think the teacher did this?
She said she wanted a safe environment for us to be able to share.  It seemed like she was saying that it was safer to tell her things than it was our parents.  It was confidential and we were encouraged to talk openly.

Was abstinence stressed in the health class?
It was brought up a couple times, but it definitely was not stressed by either the teacher or Student Medical Services.  The teacher stressed protecting yourself if you are going to be sexually active.  She forced everyone to answer the question if they would have sex and do you think about it every day.  Everyone in the class had to answer the question in front of the rest of the class.  She did the same thing when she had students explain how to use different kinds of protection.

What role did Student Medical Services have in health class?
Student Medical brought in condoms and other forms of birth control and took them out of the packages and passed them around the class.  One of the types of protection was called a dental dam and it is placed in the mouth when giving oral sex. They told us that we could come to them and get any protection without our parents knowing.  Student Medical also brought in a slideshow about STD’s that had very graphic pictures.  In the class the teacher called on students and had them explain how they thought things were used.  She nicknamed a student because the student didn’t know the meaning of the word "genitals."  (Note:  one student said that Student Medical Services was supposed to come in, but didn’t, so the teacher did the presentation of contraception/protection.

Was there anything that you liked about health class?
Yes, the heart rate thing.  And the riding around.

What did you dislike about health class?
a. We had to write our own obituary.  We could use our imagination and we could be any age, married, kids, etc.
b. We had to plan a funeral.  We had to come up with a name for the person who died and find the prices for things like embalming, caskets, flowers, etc.  Some people had problems planning the funeral because they had recently lost family members, but they still had to complete the assignment.  It bothered many other people who had not had anyone die recently.
c. The teaching about suicide.  The teacher showed us which way to cut your wrist if we were serious about committing suicide.  She said you should cut straight down instead of across.  She said if you were not serious then you would cut your wrists across.  She said if you did small cuts across the wrist you were most likely just wanting attention.
d. We had to go on the Internet and look up an STD.  We had to find the most detailed and grossest pictures of penises and vaginas that we could.  We looked it up in the school media center.  There were elementary students in the library at the time and there were middle school students that saw some of the pictures.  We had to share all the pictures with each other in class.

Why didn’t the teacher just bring picture samples of her own to class?
I don’t know.  Ask the teacher.

What was the purpose of planning a funeral?
We think the purpose of it was to show how expensive a funeral is.

Did you have any other homework assignments that involved the Internet?
Yes.  Another one was to look up a drug to find information on it such as the cost and where you can buy it.  We found a recipe for the drug rhp (a date-rape drug) on the Internet.

Is it true that in health class, students were made to plot out a rape trial?
Yes.  The teacher asked people to volunteer to be the rapist and the victim.  If people did not volunteer she picked someone.  They had to come up with detailed stories as to how they got raped and the rapist had to come up with an alibi.  Also, there were attorneys and witnesses.  There was also a jury and judge that listened to the stories and decided if the rapist was guilty or not guilty.  One girl was chosen as the victim and the rapist came up with the thought that she was a prostitute.  Then, afterwards, outside of class, other people were calling her a prostitute in real life.  She was so upset she cried over it.

Did you watch any movies in class?
Yes.  The teacher had us watch a really bad movie, which upset a lot of us about a boy who went to a juvenile center, and when he came back he was picked on very bad and he tried to hang himself.  Then, he became friends with a bad group of kids and they put one jock in a barrel full of gasoline and shot through the barrel.  Then, you could see the blood squirting out of the barrel.  He also wrote a play called “Bang, Bang, You’re Dead” which was about him killing every one around him.  Then him and his friends made a bomb but he fell in love with this girl and went against his friends and stopped them from setting the bomb off.  Another movie was about birthing.  It showed sperm swimming and actual childbirth.

What was the purpose of the movie "Bang, Bang, You’re Dead"?
We thought it was about preventing murder/suicide, but the blood squirting out the holes still upsets us.  We wish we had never seen the movie.

After having gone through the health class, do you think your peers were more sexually interested and/or active?
Yes!  It seemed like that was all students were talking about.  Students were becoming more interested in becoming sexually active.  There are many examples, but the students did not feel comfortable talking about them.

Were the emotional or mental consequences ever discussed as a result of engaging in sexual activity?
No.

Was there anything else that you wanted to talk about?
Yes.  Masturbation.  When a student asked a question if it is safe to masturbate, it was presented as being okay to do, but you need to be careful.  The teacher told a story about a girl using a broomstick to masturbate.  When her mother walked in it startled her and the broom handle went in too far and it caused her to bleed to death.

Do you think that things shared in class by students were appropriate?
No!  Often kids were gossiped about and picked on outside of class.  The classroom is not the place to be sharing personal facts about yourself in front of other boys and girls.

Was a good chunk of the time given to the topic of unhealthy eating habits, like trans fats and high fructose corn syrup and the resulting consequences like diabetes that is becoming an epidemic?
There was some discussion about eating habits but very little.  They did not remember any discussion about diabetes.  The 8th grade class does not remember talking about healthy eating habits at all.  They also did not talk about keeping clean or proper food handling.