BUFFALO - It's not something parents want to hear, but the Buffalo Public School District has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the state and the highest STD rate in our area.
The statistics come from an alarming report released earlier this week about sexual activity among Buffalo students.
2 On Your Side heard from some students Thursday about the issue, as the school district starts to hold forums to address the problem.
"A lot of younger kids, from like the ages of 12 and up are having sex," said one student.
Dante Melvin, a student at a local charter school said, "[Boys] talk about how many girls they did, what they wanted to do while they was doing them or something like that."
One of the big issues in Buffalo's public schools is how to get disturbing numbers on sexual activity among students down.
The school district's report showed that half of high school students have had sex. Also, nearly half of them are sexually active right now and more than 10 percent of them had sex before they were 13-years-old.
"Me being in 12th grade now, from my freshman year I see now who talks more, who talks less. Freshmen, they came to high school and now they just going wild," said Rande Mosley, who attends a local charter school in Buffalo.
A group of three students who 2 On Your Side talked to think the majority of Buffalo students by far are sexually active. They say they got sex ed in elementary school and now that they're older they've learned about birth control and safe sex. They think one major failure is that sex education isn't taught at every school level.
"I think that [health] class should be taught in middle school more so, and if you're just coming in as a freshman. I'm a junior, I'm just taking health," said Dyamond Ferebe, a student.
Buffalo school leaders say now that they know of the issue, they're dealing with it by, in part, hearing from the community at public forums. The first one was held Thursday at South Park High. Officials say that a new policy is in operation this year to make sex ed teaching more consistent. And that students will be learning more about self-respect, relationship-building and that books will be updated.
"So we know that everybody's getting it, so we know everybody's teaching it, we have to do staff development we have to retrain our teachers to make sure they get it that they have a comfort level," said Assunta Ventresca, a health director for Buffalo schools.
Officials say the new policy will take time to implement and that it'll take parents and the community to come together. Students also say they want their schools to show them some of the consequences of having children when they're minors.
Some students say that they learn more from reality television shows about sex education than they do from their schools.
On the issue of "sexting" or "sex texting," students say they're more aware of the dangers of sending sexually explicit comments or photos by phone, because it can easily get online and possibly damage lives.
Buffalo schools plan to survey students every two years about sex ed and other topics impacting their lives.
Here are some future forums:
Sept. 27, 6:30 p.m., East Buffalo Forum at East High School Auditorium.
Oct. 4, 6:30 p.m., West Buffalo Forum at West Lafayette High School Auditorium.
Oct. 11, 6:30 p.m., North Buffalo Forum at Bennett High School Auditorium.