LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / April 29, 2000

LAPLACE – Alarming statistics reveal that one out of four people in the River Parishes have a sexually-transmitted disease, according to a study by Louisiana Tech University.

That’s not one out of four teen-agers, or one out of four sexually-active people between the ages of 18-45. That’s out of the total population, Gov.Foster’s Program on Abstinence, represented locally by Emily Beauchamp of LaPlace, affirmed.

Beauchamp, with more than 25 years in teaching, has a new lesson to teach young people, as well as their parents – the only safe sex is no sex.

The U.S. population in 1998 was estimated at 270 million. Of that number, 65million had a viral, incurable sexually transmitted disease. That same patternis repeated state by state and, in Louisiana, parish by parish.

With all the media attention paid to the AIDS virus, another viral STD is virtually ignored, Beauchamp said, called human papilloma virus (HPV). Thereis virtually no protection by condoms against this virus. There is no cure.And it causes 99.7 percent of all cervical cancer.”Just talking to adolescents isn’t the answer,” Beauchamp said. “We have toeducate the adults.”Her role in the governor’s program is one of 12 grassroots educators across the state, assigned to St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Charles,Assumption, Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes.

She’s reaching out to schools and also to any civic, professional or business organization, trying to get the word out, especially on HPV.

“Abstinence is the only message we should be promoting,” she said. “Ourpurpose is to increase awareness, and we would like a ‘warrior’ in each parish to spread the message.”In St. John Parish, with an estimated population of 42,242, there are 10,158persons with an STD. During the year 2000 an estimated 2,810 new caseswill be discovered.

The pattern repeats itself parish by parish. In St. Charles Parish, with anestimated population of 48,015, there are 11,546 people with an STD. Anestimated 3,194 residents will get a sexually transmitted disease this year.

And again, in St. James Parish, with an estimated population of 21,289,there are 5,119 people with an STD, and 1,416 new cases will be found.

Beauchamp has been working for some time with the All-Saints Crusade through St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church and was drafted into this morewidespread crusade last month.

“My personal message is to teach parents how to give this information to their children,” she said. “Parents want what’s good for their kids.”She has a large task ahead. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, veryfew adults believe they are at risk to get an STD and most are not even aware of most of the diseases. In 1970, there were two major sexuallytransmitted diseases. Today, there are 25 major STDs.And, the Kaiser study said, only 14 percent of men and only 8 percent of women consider themselves at risk.

All is not lost, though. Beauchamp is urging schools and organizations tocontact her as quickly as possible in order to enable her to spread her message, which includes offering an alternative to sexual energy – helping each other.

“We don’t just teach them to say no, but we give them something healthy to do for the common good,” Beauchamp added. Children should be made to feelthey are normal by not having sex, and to instead steer that energy toward projects to help the community.

To contact Beauchamp, call 652-3899 or e-mail her at emilybeau@juno.com.”We’re living in urgent times, that’s for sure,” she concluded.

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