Standing in front of a room full of students, Linda Brice heldup a plush sperm and egg to illustrate her point aboutinsemination.

She spoke at the Knapp Residence Hall event “Sex Edu: What YouDidn’t Learn in High School” on Tuesday as part of HIV/AIDSAwareness Week.

“We’re trying to get the information out to as many people aspossible,” said Brice, an associate professor in the School ofNursing. “We want them to be able to protect themselves.”

The presentation showed the consequences of STDs and unprotectedsex, but Brice said she realizes students will have sex, and theyneed to know how to protect themselves.

Her PowerPoint featured photos showing the symptoms of thediseases and infections, which many students found off-putting,said Kyle Vernor, a sophomore communications major from Perryton.he said it was definitely not what he had learned in highschool.

“If it were shown in my town, there would be outrage,” he said.“But it should be shown like this.”

Though he ended up moving seats to where he couldn’t see thescreen, he said the photos were extremely effective.

“Fear is possibly the best tool for something like this,” hesaid.

The second half of the event explained various forms of birthcontrol many had not learned about in a formal setting before,especially in Texas high schools. Lara Riggs, a freshmanpre-nursing major from Lubbock, said she had been in anabstinence-only program in high school.

She said the conservative ideals of Texas are well known butmaybe not realistic.

“Obviously the STD rates are pretty high,” she said. “Peopleneed to know about this stuff.”

Alexandra Ponce de Leon, a junior pre-nursing major from Denton,said she struggled with getting a residence hall to host the event.she said administrators were afraid people might take the event,and even the signs, the wrong way.

As for STDs, Brice said that five years ago, there were only twonew cases of HIV in Lubbock in a year. in 2011 alone, there havealready been 30 new cases reported, and there are about 19,000cases total.

“Nobody talks about it,” she said. “They think, ‘Oh, the otherperson gets it, I won’t.’”