Public schools are scrambling to teach sexual education in the wake of breasturant closings.
Oklahoma’s hands have been forced in the recent decision to include sexual education in school curriculum. The decision came after all branches of popular restaurant chain, Hooters, were shut down in the state after violating state health codes.
Oklahoma legislators were forced to sign a bill enacting sex education into all schools after the capitol received a barrage of messages from local, largely male, teenagers. The teenagers expressed their anger toward the closure of their favorite restaurant. They also expressed concern as to where incoming teenagers will learn about “the birds, bro,” as one such teen put in a plea on Twitter.
We reached out to one such teen and received this response: “Man, this whole situation has rubbed me the wrong way. Hooters was my go-to after school hangout. Me and my bros would meet up there like every day. But you know what really sucks? Hooters was the only place I felt like I could actually hear about sex. Guess I’ll just have to go back to the internet now.”
The eatery held a “Going Out with a Bang” party on Sept. 3, and we were able to secure a ticket.
The party was tasteful and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. The festivities ended with a giant cake being wheeled out, frosted with an owl saying,” We Had A Hoot,’ written in orange letters.
We interviewed Candy, a waitress from the restaurant. Candy was extremely upset to hear that Hooters had been ordered to shut down. She wasn’t so upset for herself, but for all the loyal customers who frequented Hooters, saying, “Where will all the boys and girls go now?” The next nearest Hooters is approximately 118 miles away.
The bill went through on Sept. 18. This bill states that, “all Oklahoma schools are required to teach a sexual education course. It is up to the school’s discretion as to how they teach the course. This also means that school’s are in no way, shape or form required to discuss LGBTQ+ sex education.”
The leniency of the bill has caused a whole new set of problems. Some schools have really taken the “discretion” bit of the bill too seriously. A local school has been reported as not allowing their teachers to say “sex” in the sex education class. Other schools have decided to take creative license of the bill, reportedly only teaching abstinence. The same school has even gone as far to show pictures of the effects of sexually transmitted infections. You may say what’s wrong with that? Well, they’ve been telling all their students that this happens whenever one has sex, regardless of their partner actually having an STI.
We reached out to the school and received this statement: “We’d rather be safe than sorry. We value our students too much to take away their innocence in this way.”
One of the proposers of this bill took to Facebook to defend the bill. “Look, we saw an issue and we fixed it. We know that as an education system, we’re failing the students of Oklahoma, but what more can we do?” He continued with,” Oh, if only the local Hooters hadn’t shut down. I feel like that was a positive place for the youth of Oklahoma. Also, they had the best Onion Tanglers.”
Some local teenagers have started an advocacy group to educate their fellow students since no one can seem to do it properly. The group has been met with criticism from adults in the community. A group of angry parents descended upon the group at their public forum for teenagers. One mother got up and shouted, “All of you kids are just looking for something to be offended about. There are NO problems with how the school is teaching … you know what’ education.”
Lawmakers are still standing strong against the opposition of this bill. There have been numerous calls to revise the bill, but as one representative said, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Only time will tell how this situation will end. Meanwhile, how about driving the 118 miles to the next Hooters?
