High Schooler Protests ‘Slut-Shaming’ Abstinence Assembly Despite Alleged Threat

[merithyn]

As quickly as we move forward, someone is trying to drag us kicking and screaming back to the 19th century....

Link

A West Virginia high school student is filing an injunction against her principal, who she claims is threatening to punish her for speaking out against a factually inaccurate abstinence assembly at her school. Katelyn Campbell, who is the student body vice president at George Washington High School, alleges her principal threatened to call the college where she's been accepted to report that she has "bad character."

George Washington High School recently hosted a conservative speaker, Pam Stenzel, who travels around the country to advocate an abstinence-only approach to teen sexuality. Stenzel has a long history of using inflammatory rhetoric to convince young people that they will face dire consequences for becoming sexually active. At GW's assembly, Stenzel allegedly told students that "if you take birth control, your mother probably hates you" and "I could look at any one of you in the eyes right now and tell if you're going to be promiscuous." She also asserted that condoms aren't safe, and every instance of sexual contact will lead to a sexually transmitted infection.

Campbell refused to attend the assembly, which was funded by a conservative religious organization called "Believe in West Virginia" and advertised with fliers that proclaimed "God's plan for sexual purity." Instead, she filed a complaint with the ACLU and began to speak out about her objections to this type of school-sponsored event. Campbell called Stenzel's presentation "slut shaming" and said that it made many students uncomfortable.

GW Principal George Aulenbacher, on the other hand, didn't see anything wrong with hosting Stenzel. "The only way to guarantee safety is abstinence. Sometimes, that can be a touchy topic, but I was not offended by her," he told the West Virginia Gazette last week.

But it didn't end with a simple difference of opinion among Campbell and her principal. The high school senior alleges that Aulenbacher threatened to call Wellesley College, where Campbell has been accepted to study in the fall, after she spoke to the press about her objections to the assembly. According to Campbell, her principal said, "How would you feel if I called your college and told them what bad character you have and what a backstabber you are?" Campbell alleges that Aulenbacher continued to berate her in his office, eventually driving her to tears. "He threatened me and my future in order to put forth his own personal agenda and make teachers and students feel they cant speak up because of fear of retaliation," she said of the incident.


Despite being threatened, Campbell is not backing down. She hopes that filing this injunction will protect her freedom of speech to continue advocating for comprehensive sexual health resources for West Virginia's youth. "West Virginia has the ninth highest pregnancy rate in the U.S.," Campbell told the Gazette. "I should be able to be informed in my school what birth control is and how I can get it. With the policy at GW, under George Aulenbacher, information about birth control and sex education has been suppressed. Our nurse wasn't allowed to talk about where you can get birth control for free in the city of Charleston."

Campbell's complaints about her high school reflect a problematic trend across the country. There are serious consequences when figures like Stenzel repeatedly tell young Americans that contraception isn't safe. Partly because of the scientific misinformation that often pervades abstinence-only curricula, an estimated 60 percent of young adults are misinformed about birth control's effectiveness — and some of those teens choose not to use it because they assume it won't make any difference. Predictably, the states that lack adequate sex ed requirements are also the states that have the highest rates of teen pregnancy and STDs.

Some of Campbell's fellow students at GW High School are also rallying for her cause. They plan to take up the issue at a local board of education meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday evening.

Update: Via Twitter, Wellesley College has confirmed that Campbell doesn't need to worry about her spot next year:

Wellesley College @Wellesley 
Katelyn Campbell, #Wellesley is excited to welcome you this fall. http://bit.ly/13jqRet

[Malthus]

You gotta look at the principal's side of things ... I mean, what's he gonna do now with all the scarlet letters he's ordered? 

[CountDeMoney]

Update: Via Twitter, Wellesley College has confirmed that Campbell doesn't need to worry about her spot next year

Somehow, I don't think that was ever in any doubt. 

[derspiess]

Wondered how long it'd take this to get posted on Languish

[Neil]

Hmmm...  On the one hand, I hate the lies and nonsense of the abstinence-only movement.  On the other hand, I also hate fucking busybodies.  You just know this girl is a terrible person.

[Ed Anger]

I have no comment.

[derspiess]

Hmmm...  On the one hand, I hate the lies and nonsense of the abstinence-only movement.  On the other hand, I also hate fucking busybodies.  You just know this girl is a terrible person.

She may or may not be a slut, but she's definitely an attention whore.

At my WV high school we had a couple of these things each year.  IIRC nobody was required to attend but you had to go to a study hall that was presided over by the most hated teacher.  So we went, sat quietly or snickered under our breath when they tried to sell us on abstinence, and when it was over we were glad that it at least got us out of a couple of classes that day.

Maybe it did prevent someone somewhere from having sex before they were ready, dunno.  But it was generally harmless.

[Ed Anger]

Hmmm...  On the one hand, I hate the lies and nonsense of the abstinence-only movement.  On the other hand, I also hate fucking busybodies.  You just know this girl is a terrible person.

She may or may not be a slut, but she's definitely an attention whore.

At my WV high school we had a couple of these things each year.  IIRC nobody was required to attend but you had to go to a study hall that was presided over by the most hated teacher.  So we went, sat quietly or snickered under our breath when they tried to sell us on abstinence, and when it was over we were glad that it at least got us out of a couple of classes that day.

Maybe it did prevent someone somewhere from having sex before they were ready, dunno.  But it was generally harmless.

I loved the anti-drug cop in the clown outfit. Lolwut?

[Neil]

Hmmm...  On the one hand, I hate the lies and nonsense of the abstinence-only movement.  On the other hand, I also hate fucking busybodies.  You just know this girl is a terrible person.

She may or may not be a slut, but she's definitely an attention whore.

At my WV high school we had a couple of these things each year.  IIRC nobody was required to attend but you had to go to a study hall that was presided over by the most hated teacher.  So we went, sat quietly or snickered under our breath when they tried to sell us on abstinence, and when it was over we were glad that it at least got us out of a couple of classes that day.

Maybe it did prevent someone somewhere from having sex before they were ready, dunno.  But it was generally harmless.

We never got any of these, seeing as we were in Canada.  We had our assemblies to prevent drug use.

[Malthus]

Hmmm...  On the one hand, I hate the lies and nonsense of the abstinence-only movement.  On the other hand, I also hate fucking busybodies.  You just know this girl is a terrible person.

She may or may not be a slut, but she's definitely an attention whore.

At my WV high school we had a couple of these things each year.  IIRC nobody was required to attend but you had to go to a study hall that was presided over by the most hated teacher.  So we went, sat quietly or snickered under our breath when they tried to sell us on abstinence, and when it was over we were glad that it at least got us out of a couple of classes that day.

Maybe it did prevent someone somewhere from having sex before they were ready, dunno.  But it was generally harmless.

We never got any of these, seeing as we were in Canada.  We had our assemblies to prevent drug use.

I don't remember any of those.

Of course, if they were in high school, it is entirely possible I skipped out on them to go get high. 

[crazy canuck]

"I could look at any one of you in the eyes right now and tell if you're going to be promiscuous."

That would have my cue to stand up during the assembly and give her a big wink of the eye

[fhdz]

Hmmm...  On the one hand, I hate the lies and nonsense of the abstinence-only movement.  On the other hand, I also hate fucking busybodies.  You just know this girl is a terrible person.

She may or may not be a slut, but she's definitely an attention whore.

At my WV high school we had a couple of these things each year.  IIRC nobody was required to attend but you had to go to a study hall that was presided over by the most hated teacher.  So we went, sat quietly or snickered under our breath when they tried to sell us on abstinence, and when it was over we were glad that it at least got us out of a couple of classes that day.

Maybe it did prevent someone somewhere from having sex before they were ready, dunno.  But it was generally harmless.

We never got any of these, seeing as we were in Canada.  We had our assemblies to prevent drug use.

I don't remember any of those.

Of course, if they were in high school, it is entirely possible I skipped out on them to go get high. 

Yo dawg, we heard you like drugs so we put drugs in your drug assemblies!

[derspiess]

We never got any of these, seeing as we were in Canada.  We had our assemblies to prevent drug use.

We had those as well.  We also had the ones urging us not to kill ourselves, with special "video guest" Kirk Cameron giving us valuable encouragement.  One or more of them had that horrible Whitesnake "Here I Go Again" song as the into and/or conclusion.

[fhdz]

We never got any of these, seeing as we were in Canada.  We had our assemblies to prevent drug use.

We had those as well.  We also had the ones urging us not to kill ourselves, with special "video guest" Kirk Cameron giving us valuable encouragement.  One or more of them had that horrible Whitesnake "Here I Go Again" song as the into and/or conclusion.

So basically, it was the perfect recipe for people to actually kill themselves.

[Malthus]

I loved the anti-drug cop in the clown outfit. Lolwut?

"Don't do drugs in school, or the only job you will be able to get when you grow up is to wear a clown suit in school assemblies".