Mobile students featured in MCHD billboards urging parents to talk to kids about sex

Photo illustration of a billboard by MCHD's TEEN Center featuring members
of the Youth Leadership Team in Mobile. The campaign began in June, 2014.
 

MOBILE, Ala. – Five local students are being featured in a series of billboards going up around town as the Mobile County Health Department works to lower the teen pregnancy rate along the Gulf Coast. The students are Kierstyn Johnson of LeFlore High School, Maya Harris of Baker High School, Gregory Robertson, Robert Henderson of LeFlore High School and Jaquan Battles of Baker High School.

Thousands of local motorists are reading an important message each day on a popular digital billboard as they drive east bound down Government Street near the loop. The featured students take part in the TEEN Center’s Youth Leadership Team and stand next to a message that encourages residents to “Think About It.”

“If they are talking to your kids about sex, so should you” reads part of the message. The website for the TEEN Center, Thinkteen.org, also is featured at the bottom of the image. The idea behind the outdoor advertising, which was paid for with grant funding, is to raise awareness in the community that young teenagers are talking about and having sex more often than their parents and guardians may ever suspect.

Studies show that the children of parents who talk to them about the risks of sexual activity at a young age are less likely to engage in such activity during high school years, health officials said. Visit ThinkTeen.org for information on ways to talk to your chidren about the harmful effects of risky behaviors.

 

Another digital billboard with the same image and message is located at Interstate I-65 South and is visible to motorists heading south out of Prichard heading toward Mobile across from the Bright Spot. Other print billboards are scheduled to be up on June 9 at St. Stephens Road north of Gloria Street and on York Drive, across from Northside Check Exchange in Toulminville and on Dauphin Island Parkway north of Robinhood Drive.