Three forums, aimed at demonstrating how Bermuda's teens may be placing themselves at risk through their sexual behaviour and attitudes, were held last week as part of the activities surrounding the annual World AIDS Day observances on December 1.

With more and more women testing positive for HIV, it is obvious that all segments of the population are now at risk from the disease.

Latest statistics (released in September) from the Department of Health report that out of a total of 322 AIDS cases, 262 have died, 254 male and 68 female, with 20.5 percent classified as `heterosexual' and 30.7 percent as `homo/bisexual'. From these figures, it will be seen that the `heterosexual' category is rapidly increasing. The statistics also reveal that of the 322 known cases of AIDS, ten percent are white, and 89 percent, black. In September, four new cases were reported, with one death.

Listening intently, and talking with the students at each seminar was Dr.

Victoria Cargill, associate professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Invited here for Bermuda's AIDS week programme by the Allan Vincent Smith Foundation, Dr. Cargill said that, from the figures she had been quoted in Bermuda: "I can predict that the disease is spreading among the heterosexual community -- and that includes children.'' Most worrying of all, she said, was the incidence of infection among adolescents, numbers of which have "skyrocketed. In parts of southeast Asia, the number of cases has gone up by 600 percent. This is no longer a `gay' or `drug' disease.'' With these sombre facts in mind, co-hosts Ms Margaret Swift and Mr. Dwayne Caines decided on a different approach for this year's annual schools forum.

"We really took two, calculated steps backwards this time,'' explained Ms Swift. "We wanted to approach it, not from the usual `nuts and bolts' of sex, but to try and stress the importance of communication between the sexes and to point out how the influences of drugs and alcohol affect judgement.'' Also taking part in the seminar were Ms Rhonda Daniels and Mrs. Gaylia Landry, the HIV team from the Department of Health.

The Forum used the medium of film and the acting out of sketches to illustrate the theme of the Forum to almost 300 teenagers drawn from secondary schools, the Bermuda College and the Bermuda Police Cadets.

"We wanted to see how our young people talk about things, so this Forum was not strictly about AIDS but about the behaviour which can lead to AIDS,'' says Ms Swift. "I think one of the important points that came out was the fact that we may communicate well with friends in a general situation, but not so well when it involves members of the opposite sex. Also, in the heat of the moment, we tend not to talk, and to act first, and think afterwards!'' With posters around the BIU Hall proclaiming `It's not what you think -- It's what you do', the Tuesday Forum, made up of students from the Bermuda High School for Girls, and males and females from the Bermuda Police Cadets, settled down to watch TLC's video of `Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls'.

"This was a very popular song with the kids this summer,'' said Ms Swift, "and I would say the overall message is a warning and an appeal for caution: we see the woman taking the condom out of the man's hand and the assumption is that they have sexual relations.

"Then we see through a series of flashing images, the faces of various men she had been sexually active with before him. Then he goes to the mirror and we see that skin lesions have appeared. He wanted to be safe, she didn't -- and he ended up with AIDS.'' The unanimous view from the teens was that the video was effective in getting its message across, with one girl commenting: "The girl was so pretty. You don't think of people like that getting AIDS.'' The thorny issues surrounding `date rape' were explored through the staging of a sketch, with one scenario taking the girl's viewpoint, the other, seen through the eyes of the boy. Briefly put, `Cindy', at a party, agreed to go upstairs with a boy, `Phil', whom she had just met, "just to talk and get to know each other and away from all that noise''. She ends up by being raped. In Phil's scenario, however, the girl, described by him as having `a reputation', knew exactly what was going to happen, and when she cried afterwards "it was because she enjoyed it''. It certainly wasn't rape, he contended.

In the discussion that followed, stereotypical sexual attitudes mostly prevailed, with the girls defending Cindy, the boys feeling more sympathy for Phil. One female cadet said although Cindy had dressed "sexier'' for a party, that did not mean she intended having sex.

Teenagers facing up to AIDS A male cadet, however, called Cindy "a hypocrite''. When Phil offered his reactions to Cindy's weeping, laughter swept through the hall. "I've heard about your reputation'', brought more laughter from the boys.

A High School girl said that if he had been a gentleman, Phil would have stopped as soon as Cindy said `No'. The male reaction to this was that girls always say "No -- at first!'' "Cindy was playing hard to get -- it happens all the time. If a guy takes a girl upstairs, you both know what's happening,'' offered a male Cadet. This brought a furious response from one of his female colleagues, who retorted: "I think she went upstairs because there was a lot of noise down there and she wanted to talk. You're talking about morals, but if you had morals, you would stop. She said `No', brother -- so you should have stopped right there and then.'' Co-host Mr. Herbert told the Forum that this sketch demonstrated how vital it is to communicate: "Don't make assumptions, especially from appearances. And that process of communication has to start before we end up in an intimate situation.'' Ms Swift pointed out that, traditionally, men have been conditioned to believe that sex is the ultimate prize and that women, on the other hand, have to face the blame factor far more than men, if only for the reason that it is their bodies which become pregnant.

Other questions discussed from the floor included abstinence -- was it a realistic option in 1995? One female cadet said she felt it was, but that "you have to be really strong to say `No' '' -- a viewpoint agreed by most of her female peers.

There was unanimous agreement that it is possible to have HIV and not know it, or as Dr. Cargill bluntly interrupted: "You're still healthy enough to have an erection, have sex, and pass HIV on to someone else!'' Four girls decided that if you knew your partner well, it was no longer necessary to wear a condom. But as Ms Swift pointed out, the adultery rate in Bermuda is high: "There's a standard wedding joke here -- `OK, there's the wife, where's the lover?'' Dr. Cargill again stepped in, informing her audience that, in the US, one African American dies every hour from AIDS: "The price of adultery can be death. As for `faithful' relationships, that's up for grabs, seeing our divorce rates!'' Noting that she had already been `approached' by three men since her arrival in Bermuda, Dr. Cargill, who is married, retorted, "And I've only been here since Sunday!'' One of the problems of "faithfulness'', she said, is that it is often one-sided. "Often, the partner doesn't know when the other one `steps out'. I have to go back and face the family of a couple where one partner `stepped out'. Of their five children, three are infected, and will definitely die. We're talking about dying -- and taking your children out with you.'' The last sketch centered around teens being tested for HIV. In the first one, a young man, was immediately accused by his male friends as being gay. While there was marginally more sympathy for the female when she `tested positive', Ms Daniels expressed exasperation that so many people still believe that AIDS is a "gay disease'' when it clearly is not. "We also have to remember that you cannot be `given' this disease. Both partners have to take responsibility for their own actions. Sometimes, women find they are sharing the same man, and sometimes, a partner can be involved in a bisexual relationship and the other partner knows nothing about it.'' Ms Swift, who said she was pleased with the way the teens had interacted during the three days of the Forum, paid tribute to Zeudi Hinds, Tia Outerbridge and Zakyia Johnson, all of whom had helped her and Mr. Herbert research and plan the event.

As she pointed out in her closing remarks to the teenagers: "One quarter of all cases reported to the Health Department are HIV positive -- and according to Dr. Cargill, she believes the Bermuda numbers are under-estimated. If we don't start taking responsibility for our actions, we are going to be wiped out. Is it going to take a teenager dying of AIDS before we take this seriously?''