SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Professor's Outrage at Son's "Terror-Based" Sex Education Goes Viral
Alice Dreger's live-tweets about son's high school lesson in abstinence became a national news story
Apr 17, 2015
When Alice Dreger, accomplished author and professor of medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern University, attended her 9th-grade son's "abstinence-based" sex education class, she was so shocked by the presenters' baseless claims that she took to social media to live-tweet her outrage.
Since then, her Twitter storm has turned into a cyclone, going so viral it has grabbed headlines in major media outlets, gotten Dreger banned from most events at her son's high school, and invigorated a national debate about the real harm done by what Dreger calls "terror-based" sex education.
The Twitter saga unfolded on Tuesday when Dreger attended the sex education class of her 14-year-old son, who is a student at East Lansing High School in Michigan--a state where public schools are required to "stress abstinence from sex" as a matter of official policy. Dreger's son wanted to show her exactly "how bad" the class was, according to her Twitter testimony.
Dreger explained that she was so shocked by the class that she could not hold back from live-tweeting from the very room where the events unfolded.
In a series of rapid fire quotes and comments, Dreger described a scene where outside presenters were brought into the school to teach kids that sex is dangerous and shameful, automatically associated with drug overdoses, unwanted pregnancies, and horrible diseases. The experiences of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, and queer people were completely left out, said Dreger, and students were taught that science doesn't matter.
A few of Dreger's tweets are sampled below, and the full collection can be accessed here.
"Silly me!" Dreger later wrote in a detailed account of the experience, published in The Stranger. "I have been teaching my son that if a girl says no, you exit politely and get the hell out of her space."
But it did not stop there.
Colby Fletcher, the principal of East Lansing High School, denounced Dreger as displaying an "utter lack of civility." Furthermore, Dreger's public exposure of the "educational" setting, as well as an angry exchange with the presenters, has real consequences for her and her family:
Nonetheless, Dreger told the Huffington Post, "I'm incredibly glad this happened because it is causing a useful national movement of parents planning to audit what is REALLY being taught to their kids."
Furthermore, Alice Dreger is not the only person in her family the school must contend with. Her son has also been working to debunk the myths taught in the class, including by passing out scientifically-based studies to his peers. "His goal was to teach the other kids some of the truth, and also to let them know it's okay to challenge authority," wrote Dreger in The Stranger.
And on Wednesday, Dreger tweeted that her son is motivated to pursue science-based education of his own in the aftermath of what has become a national news story:
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Sarah Lazare
Sarah Lazare is the editor of Workday Magazine and a contributing editor for In These Times. She is a former Staff Writer at Common Dreams. She comes from a background in independent journalism for publications including The Intercept, The Nation, and Tom Dispatch.
When Alice Dreger, accomplished author and professor of medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern University, attended her 9th-grade son's "abstinence-based" sex education class, she was so shocked by the presenters' baseless claims that she took to social media to live-tweet her outrage.
Since then, her Twitter storm has turned into a cyclone, going so viral it has grabbed headlines in major media outlets, gotten Dreger banned from most events at her son's high school, and invigorated a national debate about the real harm done by what Dreger calls "terror-based" sex education.
The Twitter saga unfolded on Tuesday when Dreger attended the sex education class of her 14-year-old son, who is a student at East Lansing High School in Michigan--a state where public schools are required to "stress abstinence from sex" as a matter of official policy. Dreger's son wanted to show her exactly "how bad" the class was, according to her Twitter testimony.
Dreger explained that she was so shocked by the class that she could not hold back from live-tweeting from the very room where the events unfolded.
In a series of rapid fire quotes and comments, Dreger described a scene where outside presenters were brought into the school to teach kids that sex is dangerous and shameful, automatically associated with drug overdoses, unwanted pregnancies, and horrible diseases. The experiences of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, and queer people were completely left out, said Dreger, and students were taught that science doesn't matter.
A few of Dreger's tweets are sampled below, and the full collection can be accessed here.
"Silly me!" Dreger later wrote in a detailed account of the experience, published in The Stranger. "I have been teaching my son that if a girl says no, you exit politely and get the hell out of her space."
But it did not stop there.
Colby Fletcher, the principal of East Lansing High School, denounced Dreger as displaying an "utter lack of civility." Furthermore, Dreger's public exposure of the "educational" setting, as well as an angry exchange with the presenters, has real consequences for her and her family:
Nonetheless, Dreger told the Huffington Post, "I'm incredibly glad this happened because it is causing a useful national movement of parents planning to audit what is REALLY being taught to their kids."
Furthermore, Alice Dreger is not the only person in her family the school must contend with. Her son has also been working to debunk the myths taught in the class, including by passing out scientifically-based studies to his peers. "His goal was to teach the other kids some of the truth, and also to let them know it's okay to challenge authority," wrote Dreger in The Stranger.
And on Wednesday, Dreger tweeted that her son is motivated to pursue science-based education of his own in the aftermath of what has become a national news story:
Sarah Lazare
Sarah Lazare is the editor of Workday Magazine and a contributing editor for In These Times. She is a former Staff Writer at Common Dreams. She comes from a background in independent journalism for publications including The Intercept, The Nation, and Tom Dispatch.
When Alice Dreger, accomplished author and professor of medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern University, attended her 9th-grade son's "abstinence-based" sex education class, she was so shocked by the presenters' baseless claims that she took to social media to live-tweet her outrage.
Since then, her Twitter storm has turned into a cyclone, going so viral it has grabbed headlines in major media outlets, gotten Dreger banned from most events at her son's high school, and invigorated a national debate about the real harm done by what Dreger calls "terror-based" sex education.
The Twitter saga unfolded on Tuesday when Dreger attended the sex education class of her 14-year-old son, who is a student at East Lansing High School in Michigan--a state where public schools are required to "stress abstinence from sex" as a matter of official policy. Dreger's son wanted to show her exactly "how bad" the class was, according to her Twitter testimony.
Dreger explained that she was so shocked by the class that she could not hold back from live-tweeting from the very room where the events unfolded.
In a series of rapid fire quotes and comments, Dreger described a scene where outside presenters were brought into the school to teach kids that sex is dangerous and shameful, automatically associated with drug overdoses, unwanted pregnancies, and horrible diseases. The experiences of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, and queer people were completely left out, said Dreger, and students were taught that science doesn't matter.
A few of Dreger's tweets are sampled below, and the full collection can be accessed here.
"Silly me!" Dreger later wrote in a detailed account of the experience, published in The Stranger. "I have been teaching my son that if a girl says no, you exit politely and get the hell out of her space."
But it did not stop there.
Colby Fletcher, the principal of East Lansing High School, denounced Dreger as displaying an "utter lack of civility." Furthermore, Dreger's public exposure of the "educational" setting, as well as an angry exchange with the presenters, has real consequences for her and her family:
Nonetheless, Dreger told the Huffington Post, "I'm incredibly glad this happened because it is causing a useful national movement of parents planning to audit what is REALLY being taught to their kids."
Furthermore, Alice Dreger is not the only person in her family the school must contend with. Her son has also been working to debunk the myths taught in the class, including by passing out scientifically-based studies to his peers. "His goal was to teach the other kids some of the truth, and also to let them know it's okay to challenge authority," wrote Dreger in The Stranger.
And on Wednesday, Dreger tweeted that her son is motivated to pursue science-based education of his own in the aftermath of what has become a national news story:
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.