A horrified mom sparked a major debate after live-tweeting her son's abstinence-heavy sex ed class
twitter.com/alicedreger
Having a large Twitter following already, she live-tweeted the experience and some of what she said was retweeted more than 100 times. (We've embedded all of her tweets at the bottom of the post.)
Now, thanks to the attention she brought to the issue, the district will likely reform its sex education curriculum.
Dreger and other parents met with the principal, Coby Fletcher, and school board president, Nell Kuhnmuench, last night.
"It was great!" said one tweet from Dreger. "The parents were clear: WTF is a religious group doing coming in teaching our kids sex, handing out virginity pledge cards?"
The school board has yet to vote, she added, but their president said, "It is highly unlikely we will ever engage that group again," according to another tweet.
The class was led by two visitors who were affiliated with a Christian pro-life group, Dreger wrote in the Guardian. Much of what they told the 14-to-18-year-old co-ed class amounted to scare tactics designed to dissuade students from ever having sex.
"Safe sex is kind of a misnomer."
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
For example, one man associated his own premarital sex, which resulted in two pregnancies with two different women, with drug use and his failure to finish school. It was only after he found a woman who refused to sleep with him for two years that he was able to get his life together, he told the students, according to Dreger.
"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 (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
She's now telling story of condom box in which EVERY SINGLE CONDOM HAD A HOLE.
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
They played a dice game that resulted in every student in the class "getting pregnant" and having to take home a paper baby, according to Dreger.
"You have to have a baby!" There are apparently no scissors in the room for paper abortions.
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
After the class, Dreger spoke to the teacher and, in her own words, "lost it."
I lost it after class. I think I'm now in trouble for saying fuck 10 times in front of some students. And yelling about how awful it was.
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
According to a column from Judy Putnam of the Lansing State Journal, not all of the ELHS parents are happy about Dreger's advocacy. Putnam specifically takes issue with the language Dreger used in her tweets and in a heated conversation with the sex ed teacher that followed the class.
"Intentional or not, Dreger's tweets taint East Lansing schools as a hayseed district," Putnam writes on the Detroit Free Press website. "I live there. I know it is not a backwater public school system that might be debating creationism on any given day."
Also, Michigan's sex ed is legislated at the state level and legally required to include information on abstinence.
Here are all of Dreger's tweets - there are a lot - from the hourlong class she observed.
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 (@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 (@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 (@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 (@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 (@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 (@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 (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
In fact I have had the vaccine!
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Now we're hearing a horror story about marijuana use.
- Alice Dreger (@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 (@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 (@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 (@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 (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
He and the girl both had alcoholic fathers. But somehow he's not recommending never drinking.
- Alice Dreger (@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 (@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 (@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 (@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 (@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 (@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 (@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 (@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 (@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 (@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 (@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 (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
.@Clarknt67 Yes! Public school! In a liberal college town!!!!!
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Now the woman is up. "Sometimes condoms fail."
- Alice Dreger (@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 (@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 (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
She's now telling story of condom box in which EVERY SINGLE CONDOM HAD A HOLE.
- Alice Dreger (@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 (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
About 18% chance a condom will fail, she says.
- Alice Dreger (@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 (@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 (@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 (@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 (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"You have to have a baby!" There are apparently no scissors in the room for paper abortions.
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"I'm going to collect the babies that you don't want. We recycle them."
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
"Safe sex is kind of a misnomer."
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
It's over. I need a drink.
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
I can't get up. I'm too stunned.
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
I lost it after class. I think I'm now in trouble for saying fuck 10 times in front of some students. And yelling about how awful it was.
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Teacher: What would you teach?
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
I would teach that sex should be pleasurable and respectful. He said, "WHAT ABOUT DISEASE PREVENTION?" I said that's part of respect, duh.
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Teacher says to me "I agree that sex is good in a loving relationship." I said it can be plenty terrific without. He looked shocked. Shocked
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Then he tells me my kid "AMBUSHED" the speaker because he brought a printout of http://t.co/lQP9PEXh2I and challenged abstinence education.
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
The mate nailed it when I told him: "Ambush kinda implies weaponry. Data is not weaponry unless you are dealing with fools."
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Me: "Do you even teach them about consent?""Yes, we had the cops in to warn them not to rape."YET MORE TERROR-BASED TEACHING
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
I just want to grab all those kids after school and say HERE IS THE TRUTH. SEX FEELS GOOD. THAT'S WHY YOU SEEK IT. TAKE CARE & HAVE FUN.
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
At the start of class, teacher said "put away your phones." I suspect tomorrow he's going to start by telling my kid to put away his data.
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
Has anyone yet figured out what the teacher meant by "LGBYT"? Leading theory is he was hungry for a BLT.
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
The mate: What did they say to the girls?Me: Nothing. Girls don't want sex. Why would you bother to address them in sex ed?
- Alice Dreger (@AliceDreger) April 15, 2015
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