Two 9th graders in Illinois were suspended for protesting their junior high’s abstinence only sex ed by wearing t-shirts adorned with unopened condoms and the slogan “Safe Sex or No Sex.”

Cheyenne Bird, 14, and Tori Shoemaker, 15, felt that the abstinence-only sex ed their school mandates for 6th and 8th graders insufficiently prepares students for senior high. Shoemaker told a local tv reporter, “We're more mature, we're going up to the high school, and teenagers are going to do what they do.”

Their school superintendent called the shirts “a distraction at school” and “inappropriate,” and suspended the girls for two days. Mmhm nothing’s inappropriate like students asking for more knowledge and better education—and getting shot down. “We were supporting safe sex, it's something we believe in and we shouldn't get suspended. It’s freedom of speech,” said Shoemaker.

Although speech like theirs is far from protected in public high schools, these girls are on the right track. “Safe Sex or No Sex” is an excellent slogan for high school sex education; it straddles the line between encouraging contraception and encouraging sex. Young people who are going to have sex anyway need to know how to protect themselves from disease and pregnancy. As 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.”

Seriously—when 9th graders are asking for comprehensive sex ed, and they’re genuinely worried about their peers entering senior high ill-equipped, shouldn’t we give it to them?

via Jezebel. 

Update: Peter Rotherberg also covered it here.