We already know that abstinence-only sex education is ineffective, but it’s still taught in nearly 25 percent of public schools.
Michigan’s East Lansing High School was recently taken to task for teaching abstinence in its sex ed curriculum when Alice Dreger sat in on her son’s sex ed class. She wasn’t pleased with what she saw, prompting her to shame the school in a series of tweets that have gone viral.
As a noted bioethicist and the author of the book Galileo’s Middle Finger, Dreger is far from bashful when it comes to sounding off against bad science. So when she visited her son’s sex ed class, she couldn’t fight the urge to condemn what was being taught. Her running commentary on Twitter paints a less-than-desirable picture of how high schoolers learn about sex:
The kid has invited me to his health class on sex ed to see how bad it is, so I'm going. But hands over my mouth means I can't live-tweet it
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Uh oh. They stuck me in the corner with my computer and there is wifi….so I can live tweet this. We still pledge loyalty to the flag, huh?
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
I can't stand this. They're teaching "abstinence stories" that worked and non-abstinence" stories that "led to consequences."
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
The visitor-teacher is telling my kid abstinence education reduces premarital sex. My kid is trying to show her studies that dispute that.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
She's being completely condescending. "You can look up anything on the internet" Then refers him to site on abstinence education!
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
I feel like raising my hand and saying "Can I tell my sexual history, which involves a lot of pleasure before and during marriage?"
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
And how I've had a lot of lovers and have never gotten pregnant by accident? Yes, I had HPV! And I would get the vaccine!
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
In fact I have had the vaccine!
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Now we're hearing a horror story about marijuana use.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
The regular health teacher in trying to shut my kid up referred to "LGBYT." And how the board decides what we learn.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
The guy telling the "abstinence" story is now telling us about having sex as a teenager. I'm confused.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Now he's talking about getting a girl preg and them hiding it from their parents. Yup, that's what sexual shame does, dude!
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Preg girl got picked on so her friends desserted her. That's what happens if you have sex, kids! Yup! Pregnant and NO FRIENDS!
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
He and the girl both had alcoholic fathers. But somehow he's not recommending never drinking.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
The whole lesson here is "sex is part of a terrible lifestyle. Drugs, unemployment, failure to finish school — sex is part of the disaster"
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
This guy really thinks this story of "I fucked up for years and years" is going to lead to other kids not fucking up.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Whereas the lesson I would take is "sometimes it takes years to get your shit together, and that's okay"?
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Oh and of course, now a story about a friend who OD'ed and "was a vegetable 11 years. Tore their family apart." FFS. Welcome to sex ed.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
This whole story of OD's, people in prison, out-of-marriage pregnancies is ironically a story of this guy's resilience and normalcy.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"I have a daughter whose 21 and I would go absolutely nuts if I knew she ever let a stranger into her house."
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"I finally met a great girl who was brought up in abstinence, and her life was so much better. I put her on a pedestal above everyone else."
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"I liked her so much [I so wanted to fuck her] I decided to change my lifestyle and go with abstinence [until I could fuck her]."
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"Two years after we started dating I asked her to marry me and we're 8 years married." And I'll bet yer fucking, aren't ya!
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"We're not saying having sex is a bad thing. My story I can say having sex was a bad thing for me because I craved it."
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"You'll find a good girl. If you find one that says 'no,' that's the one you want." HE ACTUALLY JUST SAID THAT.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Now the woman is up. "Sometimes condoms fail."
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
She says "it is absolutely better to use something than nothing" in terms of birth control. "But it can fail."
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"It takes only 1 sperm to fertilize an egg. It takes only 1 time having sex to get pregnant." Yet she's not suggesting oral or anal.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
She's now telling story of condom box in which EVERY SINGLE CONDOM HAD A HOLE.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
She says per the FDA 1 out of every 400 boxes of condom can be totally defective. "You might get that 400th box." BE AFRAID!
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
About 18% chance a condom will fail, she says.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"On average 1 out of 6 times there is a mishap with a condom." "Every day in US 1600+ teen pregnancies." Lesson: condoms fail? WTF?
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Condoms. They fail. You get pregnant. Your friends leave you. You drop out of school. Your kids end up in the army.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"We are going to roll this dice 8 times. Every time your number comes up, in pretend your condom failed and you get a paper baby." JESUS!!!
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Paper babies are being handed out to EVERYONE. They have ALL HAD CONDOM FAILURE AND THE WHOLE CLASS IS PREGNANT.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"You have to have a baby!" There are apparently no scissors in the room for paper abortions.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"I'm going to collect the babies that you don't want. We recycle them."
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"Safe sex is kind of a misnomer."
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
It's over. I need a drink.
— Alice Dreger, Ph.D. (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Dreger’s tweets spread around the Internet so quickly that the school had to issue an official statement to keep things under control. According to that statement, East Lansing’s sex ed curriculum is not abstinence-only. Dreger just happened to attend on a day when the class was discussing abstinence.
Neither Principal Coby Fletcher nor Vice Principal Nancy Artman responded to a request for comment.
H/T Mashable | Photo via Ian T. MacFarland/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)