PARIS — Teachers, health professionals and administrators agree there is not adequate time to fully educate students on health issues.

They say some students remain woefully ignorant or misinformed on important issues, from dental care to birth control, and it’s especially a problem for local high school students.

The Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School health curriculum is based on a set of standards required by the Maine Department of Education. It includes sections on mental health, stress management, relationships, communication, human sexuality, drug prevention and nutrition.

Jeni Cash, the health department head at OHCHS said there is never enough time to to cover all of the requirements, especially because budget cuts have swelled class sizes.

She teaches seven classes of basic health education per year, with an average of 22 students per class.

OHCHS students are required to earn half a credit of health education in their freshman year. That means students spend 19 hours of class time on health in a four-year span.

Each semester Cash struggles to complete the entire curriculum and often drops a topic. This semester she had to scrap the nutrition section.

Because of the vast differences in students’ experiences, Cash said, additional class time is needed for questions and discussion, but it simply isn’t available.

Cash uses the example of sex education to illustrate her point.

“I have kids who have no idea what sex is to kids that … know one of their peers who is pregnant,” she said.

Ann Johnson, the staff nurse at OHCHS, agreed that cramming all of the necessary information into a semester doesn’t leave time for discussion or questions.

“Kids need time to talk about things, and you don’t do that quickly,” Johnson said.

Cash offers a more in-depth elective health class for juniors and seniors, but she can only take 40 students each year.

Stephanie Swan, a professor at the University of Maine at Farmington, helped develop the state’s health standards when she worked at the Maine Department of Education.

She agreed that teachers are not being given enough time to teach comprehensive health. Teaching a “one-shot” class to freshmen is inadequate, she said.

“You can’t talk to freshmen about the same types of decisions seniors are making in high school,” she said, “because they won’t know what you’re talking about.”

Health professionals say they see direct and indirect impacts of a minimal health education on student and community health.

Dr. Kathryn Herlihy, who works at Western Maine Pediatrics in Norway, often treats OHCHS students. She is consistently surprised at their ignorance of important health issues, she said.

She says students are often misinformed about alcohol and drugs and oblivious to some basic reproductive health facts.

“You just wonder, if they had more education about this, would there be less negative outcomes?” she asked.

As an example, Herlihy says that many of the girls she talks to have no idea that cervical cancer can be caused by human papillomavirus virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted disease.

“Here they are having sex, and they don’t know the pretty significant consequences of having multiple partners,” she said.

Students also are unaware of the risks for their future health if, for example, they start drinking at an early age.

“Those kinds of things, I think that they would know when they are juniors and seniors in high school, and yet they don’t,” Herlihy says.

She says that when she approaches the school about enhancing the health curriculum, she is told there is simply not enough time.

“When I hear what the curriculum is in terms of health education, it’s extremely limited and it seems like it’s not a priority, and that frustrates me,” she said.

Also, Johnson said, students sometimes aren’t fully informed about simple things, like oral health.

“It’s incredibly important and I don’t even think we talk about it,” she said.

She and Cash would like to see an increased curriculum that would include two mandatory health credits, one taken during the freshman year and the second during junior or senior year.

They say that older students are more receptive and interested in the subject and the knowledge they gain can help prepare them for the future.

But Johnson is realistic about the chances of implementing the plan.

“It’s really almost impossible with our limited resources,” she said.

Swan said schools should start earlier in adopting a health curriculum for grades K-12. Constant reinforcement, she said, is key to improving students’ understanding of health issues.

Herlihy is concerned about the community’s future health without an increase in education.

“Unless we change the way this next generation is approaching their lifestyle in terms of health, we’re going to be in a worse situation 10 years from now,” Herlihy said.