On one of the first days of our seventh grade sexual health unit in my small western Wisconsin suburb, we watched a speech by Pam Stenzel, one of the most well-known abstinence-only health educators in the country.

She told the girls in the crowd that she could tell by looking at them which ones were “promiscuous.” I didn’t know what that word meant. It had prom in it, so I thought it had something to do with dressing up.

A woman with short brown hair smiles with headphones on in front of a radio microphone.

She went on to talk about “girls dressing in certain manners,” trying to tempt boys with their crop tops and belly button rings. Then she said something I will never forget, cloaked in sexism and victim shaming: Girls who have sex with more than one person are like chewed up pieces of gum or velcro that stops sticking.

Read the full article about sex education by Sam Stroozasat at Chalkbeat.