Teens battle complacency on education about AIDS
Back in 1995, Richard M. Marchand was teaching a health course at Shrewsbury High School when he was approached by some 10th-graders who shared a disturbing anecdote: They had met students from another local high school who had never been taught about HIV and AIDS.
"How can people expect teens to make sound decisions when they lack the information?" Marchand said recently.
In response, Marchand and his students created the Dream Team, which stands for Daring to Reform Education on AIDS Matters. The Dream Team grew to 28 students and has 200 students involved today. Shrewsbury High School's Dream Team went on to draft a congressional resolution calling for more HIV/AIDS education programs. The resolution was accepted by Congress in 1996, Marchand said, and the Dream Team was honored by the Ryan White Foundation as youth group of the year. The Ryan White Foundation folded in 2000 because of a lack of donations, but the Shrewsbury student group has continued, Marchand said. The students raise money for acupuncture for AIDS victims, baby-sit HIV-positive children, and volunteer with the AIDS Project Worcester, Marchand said.
"People got complacent, people thought it wasn't an issue anymore. Our kids are active helping people directly impacted by the virus," Marchand said. "[AIDS] did not go away. It really hasn't. They hear about their neighbors, relatives, friends, people they work with. It's a disease that affects all of us. It is not a discriminating disease. The kids want to know and they need a platform to learn.
"Some kids are still not learning any sex education today," he said. "You cannot teach about AIDS and HIV without talking about sexuality. A lot of schools don't have health classes. If you do have them, HIV and AIDS is just a small part of curriculum because of ed reform. You can't spend two weeks talking about [AIDS] like you'd like to. The curriculum is so restrictive."
Brian Mawdsley, 23, was one of the original members of the Dream Team "We had Mr. Marchand for health class, and we saw there was kind of a need for more [HIV/AIDS] education," he said. "We got together, a group of us, not a huge group. We ended up drafting a congressional resolution about what we thought was needed" in AIDS education.
Mawdsley said he is glad he received a strong education on AIDS before he got to Bentley College, where he earned a degree in economics last year.
"[HIV/AIDS] is always something you should keep in mind," said Mawdsley. "You don't have health class in college. You're out and on your own, and it's something you should have learned already.
"It's going to be more of an issue in the coming years. Everyone sees Magic Johnson . . . he seems to be doing OK. But that's not an everyday common story. He has so much money. There are people really suffering out there."
Melissa Pessolano, 21, also belonged to the Dream Team when she attended Shrewsbury High. She was surprised to find out in college that other students did not receive as much AIDS education in their high schools.
"Once I got to college, I realized everyone was not as educated as I had thought they were," said Pessolano, who attended Framingham State College.
"In general I think other schools would benefit" by having their own Dream teams, she said.
Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.
