The article detailed an account of an anonymous senior female student who got drunk and performed oral sex on a boy she described as little more than a friend. The article quotes the student:
"We have a don't ask, don't tell policy. I'm sure my parents think I've had some experience, but they don't know the specifics. Aside from being unwilling to tell our parents, teens are very willing to publicize oral sex and we aren't very ashamed of ourselves."An article in the Daily Herald newspaper published Sunday, February 4th predictably glosses over the obvious implication of the piece and instead focuses on the 'power of the press.'
However, what the article exposes is what can happen when students' real lives and attitudes are exposed to the view of the public; it doesn't reflect well on the public institution. There's a lesson to be learned here: When schools insist on 'teaching' safe sex and how to avoid pregnancy, students learn, and the results can be very scary for parents.
Excerpts:
A Wheeling High School student newspaper article that officials say unintentionally painted the perception teenagers are permissibly blase about oral sex is handing the teen journalists a real-life lesson in the power of the press.Is that really the only lesson here?
Adviser Karen Barrett said she always has been there before, but a death in the family last time around prompted her unscheduled absence. A colleague supervised instead.We hope parents see it as more than that. It's a wake-up call to see what is happening to our kids as a result of living in a society that is unwilling to make any moral judgments regarding sex. Sex is constantly presented to our children in a morally 'neutral' fashion -- in the media, music, movies, television programs, and even our public schools. That our kids have come to the conclusion that it's 'no big deal' should surprise no one.
“The article would have run whether I was here or not. But would it have run in its current form? Who’s to say,” said Barrett, who was aware of the piece in advance and had coached the writer early on.
Barrett said she’s also hopeful parents who read the paper — about 150 people subscribe to the monthly publication — see it as a “window into what students are talking about."
Sandy Rios summed it up well:
“It isn’t so much that the article appeared in the paper,” said Rios, a host on [AM1160 WYLL.] “It’s the fact that this is mainstream America. It’s sad for the kids and sad for us.From the Daily Herald article, it would also appear that the school learned its lesson: Don't let the students' real lives and attitudes be exposed to the view of the public. Make sure the students' free press isn't so free, otherwise, administrators might get fired and school board members might be booted by the voters.
Read the whole article at the DailyHerald.
