Jezebel
Two St. Louis-area 9th graders, Tori Shoemaker and Cheyenne Bird, 14, 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. 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.
Even though the junior high brass isn't budging — they have no plans to revise 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."
Controversial T-Shirts In Metro East [KMOV]
Sex Shirts Lead To Suspension[CNN]
State Sex Education Requirements [Institute For Youth Development]
Comments
Parents who seriously want their kids to wait for marriage must not love their kids very much. And are likely hypocritical asswipes.
These two girls ROCK.
Yeah, look at all those immaculate conceptions. No one has the sex; the girls just come up pregnant! That's the trouble with Tribbles. They're so cute until they're clogging all the overheads on the Enterprise.
Good for them!! Shame on the stupid administrators.
Tear in my eye...
The true meaning of "too cool for school."
Jezebels in Training!
Props to the parents for supporting their daughters. If only there were more parents and kids like this. Sigh.
Wow, that's pretty gutsy. Good for them.
I want to be their friend and take them out for drinks on their 21st birthday. These chicks are awesome. And thank you dad for not burying your head in the sand while screaming "Not my baby! She doesn't do the sex!"
These girls are amazing.
Sex-positive advocacy by teens gives me the warm fuzzies. FIGHT THE POWER, GIRLS!
Not sure why, but this reminded me of Pink Floyd. Brick in the wall.
Good to know self expression is squashed in the formative teen years. Now we will have something to blame in 15 years when everything has gone to shit.
That is bad-ass. They should have gone all out and worked the TLC look, though.
God damn, but I hate all high school and middle school administrators so much that it makes my fucking EYES BLEED.
@eeva: Someone will have to teach them about it.
Tori and Cheyenne ROCK. Can we name them Jezebels of the Week or something? Send them some cupcakes?
Shoemaker is an awesome surname.
This is one of the issues that pisses me off most in this fucked-up country - so YOU GIRLS ROCK. Keep it up. God, sometimes kids know so much more than adults, eh?
These girls are AWESOME.
But I'm just glad I didn't have to do something like that. Yea for comprehensive sex ed!
Wow Im impressed. Their parents did a great job!
These girls are great AND they appear to have good parental units. Amazing. Can they be Hot Jezebels of the Month or something, a la DListed?
props, HARD. especially for jr. highers, because those years are the hardest to be yourself and say eff all to what anyone else thinks. school administrators: why do you miss the point? they should be an example in every civics class for the next 5 years. jezzies of the week, for sure.
@jobsworth: And Bird! I love surnames that are also common nouns.
Those girls are awesome and definitely oooh, on the TLC tip.
Great that their parents are teaching them what they need to know, since the school is falling down on the job. And good for them for spreading the word.
@Shabba: Isn't it illegal to ban students from protesting in this way? I wish I could remember my college First Amendment class...but wasn't there a case, wayyyy back in the 70s, where some students were suspended for wearing black anti-war armbands and the Supreme Court decided they should be allowed to protest in that way?
Either way, good work ladies! Glad to read their parents are supporting them as well.
@meaghan2k: There may be some hope for the upcoming generation after all.
Heck yeah. I'll make cupcakes if someone finds out where to send them.
I LOVE THESE GIRLS!
One morning in 8th grade I entered homeroom to see N.S.B.M. on the board.... No Sex Before Marriage. The speech that followed was scarring at a minimum. "Don't make eye contact! Because then you'll have sex! and then you'll be pregnant or even worst, damned!"
Safe sex ed needs to happen. I'm glad these chicks have the guts to express themselves.
@NefariousNewt: I know. It makes me want to go have a kid right now to get a jump start on putting awesome kids out in the world.
my gawd, I wish I'd been this cool when I was 14.
@stacyinbean: They definitely need to win an award for doing their civic duty, if nothing else. More kids need to speak up on issues like this if there's to be any hope.
Can we award a Jezebel Scholarship to these two ladies?
Why aren't more parents protesting, across the country?
This is like in my area where parents are mad the 11th and 12th grades put on a sex education workshop for the 9th and 10th. While it is a nice idea for kid to wait, they all are not going too. So let them learn the facts, especially from people they will listen to.
@rah29: Unforch, that's been rolled back since then. Remember "Bong Hits for Jesus?" The current SCOTUS isn't a huge fan of kids rights, so if something is disruptive to the classroom environment, teachers/administrators have a lot of leeway in silencing them.
I wish I'd been this rad at 14.
I hope they put this on their college applications. Well done, ladies.
What happens to the seventh graders?
Yay for these girls and their fabulous parents! I want to hug that dad. This made my morning.
@LadySkittlehattington: Agreed! These girls are awesome.
I hope I would have been as ballsy a 15 year old, but I'm grateful I'll never know, thanks to late 90s comprehensive sex ed! But seriously, good on these girls. I hope they're getting lots of support from their peers and the community.
@CollegeBookworm: Hah yeah we eventually got a fairly comprehensive sex ed class in 5th year (11th grade)... by which time at least one guy had already fathered a kid. At which point I suspect it was rather too late.
@PinkSoxHat: Ahh thanks. Sadly all I used to know about US law has gone down the drain, replaced by the byzantine beauty that is the EU legal system. At least, that's my excuse.
I LOVE IT!!!
@jerseylicious: Exactly. I'm extremely pissed about the poor quality of my education in my rural school, but the sex ed classes were pretty good. I can't imagine what it's like now.
@ForeverBlueGirl: we should totes give these girls honorary Jezebel memberships!
Oh wait...sometimes I forget Jez is actually open to the public.
Why are we still teaching abstenance only? WHY??
And someone also should've taught me how to spell.
Awesome. Just...awesome.
These two girls are smart and ballsy. And they have sensible, realistic parents! sigh... if only other teenage girls and their parents would follow suit.
Hold up wait a minute. I went to school in Illinois and my sex ed told us about contraception, if I remember correctly. So WTF? This was in the late 90s, so yeah, maybe things have changed.
@TruculentandUnreliable: Our sex ed classes were pretty good too. So that's TWO schools in KS with decent sex ed.
@LadySkittlehattington: Which doesn't mean that things haven't changed since then.
I want one of those T-shirts.
Also, "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" - how can you teach about HIV without discussing preventative measures such as the use of condoms?
@Leiakat: That's a brilliant idea. The older kids have to learn in order to teach, and the younger kids listen to peers who they still look up to. Amazing!
Also, it bothers me that someone can say you live in the St. Louis area, but actually you're in Illinois.
@vivresavie17: The state law doesn't require that you teach about contraception, but it doesn't prohibit it, either. Different schools can make different determinations about what the curriculum is.
So...yay local control, I guess.
I love these girls. They're picking up where Left Eye left off.