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Tori Shoemaker and Cheyenne Bird, two St. Louis-area 9th graders were suspended from their Illinois junior high school for wearing condom-bedecked t-shirts proclaiming “Safe Sex Or No Sex” as a way of protesting their school’s abstinence-only education policy. Jezebel.com reports
Shoemaker, 15, told a local TV station, “We were supporting safe sex, it’s something we believe in and we shouldn’t get suspended. It’s freedom of speech.” The school superintendent, however, found the shirts “inappropriate” and “a distraction at school”. Shoemaker and Bird’s school, Lewis & Clark in Wood River, Illinois, teaches abstinence only to sixth and eighth graders, and Shoemaker thinks that safe-sex education is imperative for teens entering high school. “We’re more mature, we’re going up to the high school, and teenagers are going to do what they do,” Shoemaker explained to a reporter from KMOV TV.
According to a non-profit website called The Institute For Youth Development, the state of Illinois is required by law to teach sex ed about HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, but it is not required to teach about abstinence or contraception.
While the school has no plans to change their abstinence-only curriculum, the girls’ parents are supportive. Vic Shoemaker, Tori’s dad, told reporters: “I’m realistic, I’d like to see them not do it at all before they get married, but look at all the teenagers coming up pregnant.”
For more on sex education and ways in which the media is trying to help educate teens about positive sexually choices visit themediaproject.com
. The Media Project is a program of Advocates for Youth, which offers entertainment professionals the latest facts, research assistance, script consultation, and story ideas on today’s sexual and reproductive health issues, including condoms, pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, abstinence, and abortion. In doing so they hope that the entertainment industry will portray teen sexually activity accurately and responsibly.
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Filed under:
Education • Ethics • Human Rights
Related Links:
LGBT Teens Win Against Abstinence Only Education
Ignoring the Elephant in the Sex-Ed Classroom
Censorship in Our Schools
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Tagged as:Abstinence • Advocates for Youth • Cheyenne Bird • Institue for Youth Development • KMOV TV • safe sex • Safe Sex or No Sex • Sex Education • St Louis • The Media Project • Tori Shoemaker
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15 posts in the last 24 hours
These girls have every right to get facts out to their peers.
lora brunckeThe adults seem to want to keep secrets.
Lora
I forgot to add GO, GIRLS!
lora brunckeWhat exactly do people who support these girls think ’safe sex’ is?
If you do your homework, you’ll find that most teens who are having
sex and are using condoms don’t use them correctly or every time.
Plus the condoms break quite often.
So how is this safe sex?
Pregnancy is not desired for our teens. It’s a hard road, but survivable.
But there are many STD’s that are even more difficult to bear.
Have any of you heard of the STD, HPV before?
A condom isn’t guaranteed protection from this awful disease.
And, you can contract it just by touching ‘particular areas’ of the body.
20 million people currently have this disease many contracted in their teens.
About 6.2 million Americans get a new HPV infection each year.
Don’t believe me…check out the Center of Disease Control’s website.
And if you think that the Gardisil shot will protect your teen,
the vaccine does not protect against all types of HPV.
It only protects from four strains and there are 30.
And it also greatly increases your daughter or future daughter in laws
risk for cervical cancer; many years down the road.
I’ve talked with Many teens both male and female who have been involved
sexually. I can tell you that most regret it and wish they’d waited.
So, wouldn’t you prefer your teens wait for a partner who is 100% positive that
Angelathey’ll not bring disease into their lives. Or don’t you prefer your teen find a spouse one day
that doesn’t bring a bunch of horrible baggage with them? Or find out that they now have cervical
cancer from a bad choice when they were a teen?
I know I do. I want the absolute best for my kids. That’s why I teach them to wait
for ALL sexual activity until marriage.
You are right. Thank you. The girls cannot practice safe sex. Some will be allergic to latex and spermicides, anyway.
lora brunckeThey have to understand that to be truly safe, it must be no sex. Yikes!
They will eventually marry. How can we make it safe then?
Lora
I’d suspend these girls for eating too many Big Macs and Whoppers! You can have all the safe sex you want, but does it really matter if you drop dead at 29 from a heart attack?
Freddy DeebAnd who do we have to thank for these girls prefering Big Macs and Whoppers? I say aggressive marketing.
I remember my grandfather and father being excited when MacDonald’s first opened up. A great, cheap family meal!
Most kids love this type of food because it is familiar and tasty.
Apples are never advertised, nor do they have the same taste sensation, nor do they come with a toy, and they probably contain pesticides and herbicides.
Kids today face huge health risks promoted by unethical marketing because of man’s preoccupation with his wallet.
Speaking about heart attacks at a young age, I just became aware that teens face the potential to overdose on caffeine from a ROCKSTAR energy drink. My daughter and her friend each bought a can and drank the whole thing. It became available to our teens without parents really knowing much about it. Luckily she had the can and I looked at it.
lora brunckeWas I mad!
ROCKSTAR sells a 710 ml energy + punch, which is an overdose amount of caffeine, if taken in one sitting. They sell them here in Canada next to other drinks the same size. They print on the can that the limit is 500 ml per adult per yet they target teens, who won’t read the fine print.
I have contacted my government and called the Rockstar, Inc. number for Coca-Cola, but no results yet.
I live in Canada so not sure if they sell this size in the states.
Parents might want to check.
Lora