Imagine you get a newsletter from the Medical Institute for Sexual Health (which I do every month.) And you're reading along about how HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) is the leading cause of Oral Cancers, and Oral Cancer has risen dramatically since 1998 among adolescent males... from .9 per 100,000 to 8.5 per 100,000.
Then you come across this statement:
"Oral sex is common among adolescents. It is estimated that ONE IN FIVE adolescents have had oral sex by the end of the ninth grade"*
That means FOURTEEN YEAR OLDS. Think of the 14 year olds you actually know. Not the ones on TV. Real ones. Do you think they have ANY IDEA that what seems like no big deal to them --- [For instance, Dr. Meg Meeker tells of a teacher who found a note on the floor in her middle school classroom, "Sorry I didn't show up for my BJ at lunch. It's Taco Tuesday."] -- could potentially mean they have their tongue, throat or esophagus surgically removed?
Not likely.
Ummm, but aren't they taught in their Comprehensive Sex Ed. Class that oral sex is "safe"?
Yep.
