Chapter 16

“Hey, guess what happened today,” Tom called when he arrived home after classes one day in early April. “Media event of the year, so far.”

“Hi, darling,” Cynthia hugged him in greeting. “What are you so excited about?”

“That journal article we did. The students who run the journal had reporters looking for them today—they wanted interviews with the article’s authors. You know, the seven of us who put the research together and wrote it up. At first I thought I’d keep in the background but the journal’s editor talked me—all of us—into giving an interview.”

“Really? Who was the interview with?”

“Several local TV stations. It’ll be on at six, they said.”

“Cool!” Roger had come in. “So that article must have made a splash.”

“Looks like it, since they wanted to talk to us. They asked us a bunch of questions and the kids who run the journal did it like a news conference.”

Later they watched the news. The piece was introduced by the local anchorperson.

“In local news today, WAGZ learned about an article in the latest issue of a student journal published by Georgia Polytech, American Civics, which came out four days ago. The journal carries articles written by students which discuss current social issues and problems in American culture. An article in the current issue caught our attention as it is a study of the social problems that the Naked in School Program has caused in the country.

“Here to tell us about the article and its authors is our education reporter, Julian Sommers. Julian, why is this article causing such great interest?”

“Thanks, Robyn. Georgia Polytech isn’t a university noted for its expertise in sociological research; it’s one of the top technical and engineering schools in the country and not a source of important social research. Also, a student-run journal like American Civics isn’t the place where one would look to find important sociological studies either. But both the college and the journal have jumped into the sociological spotlight with this paper which describes some startling details that add to the woes of the Naked in School Program, one of the most controversial education programs ever begun in the U.S. education system.

“Last year we reported on the effect of the Program on student academic performance; that was a study also completed by students, but at Avery University, and that study showed that average student performance declined by a full grade after their high school implemented the Program. The study that was published this week shows that the problems caused by the Program aren’t limited to the high schools and student grades, they affect society in many ways too, some of them economically, and the effect is uniformly bad.

“Polytech allowed us to interview some of the authors of the study, those who could be reached in the limited time we had available. The authors are all students and it’s significant that all are engineering or computer science students. In other words, the work was all completed on their own and not as part of a course. We met with Thomas Emerson, Dale Masters, George Ulrey, Abbey Castile, and Sandra Toomey. Co-authors who weren’t able to be at the interview were Janice Bowers and Herbert Simpson. The co-authors conducted a group interview because they took time out of their busy days to meet with the media and we edited the interview to capture the most important parts.

Media representative: “Mr Thomas Emerson, you were the lead author?”

Emerson: “Yes, sir, more like the organizer and shepherd. Everyone did important work.”

Media: “Why did you write the article? If it wasn’t for a class or any academic credit, why did you all spend so much time?”

Masters: “I’ll answer that one. I’m Dale Masters. My sister was sexually assaulted while in the Program and I noticed that assaults associated with the Program seemed to be common. Tom had been working with a group of students at Avery on a study there about academic performance and he suggested that a group here at Polytech might do a parallel one on social issues. I was happy to join him. The others had similar reasons for being anti-Program.”

Media: “You mentioned sexual assaults were common. How common?”

Toomey: “Sandra Toomey. I worked on those data. We had some 37,500 reports to work from; obviously these were anecdotal self-reports, but the sheer numbers probably balances out exaggerations. This wasn’t a true ‘scientific’ study—it was a kind of retrospective survey study. What we found was that the occurrence of rapes among students in the Program ranged between ten to fifteen times greater than the general population and over fifty times greater in the same demographic, that is, high-school students. Lesser sexual assaults were also about eighty times greater in that demographic. The number was 13,588 assaults described in about 37,500 postings.”

Media: “That’s an awfully large number. Could you verify any of those cases?”

Toomey: “No, that’s the limitation of the data we had to work with. But if you assume that if even as much as half of the reports were exaggerations, it still wouldn’t change the fact that the Program seems to be responsible for a significant number of assaults.”

Media: “The study mentions economic impact too.”

Emerson: “That’s correct. Many victims of assaults needed medical care. There were over 6,000 cases of psychological trauma reported and about 10,000 cases of physical injuries; and both of those kinds of injuries needed medical care. These were not injuries from assaults, but from other causes like being forced to play sports while nude or trauma or infections caused by the sexual molestation that the Program forces its participants to endure. Then we found numerous cases of students being put on anxiety meds to get them through their Program week. So those are some of the kinds of medical issues and they all carry significant price tags. And we need to add to medical costs the legal costs to society of having to prosecute those who broke the law, or costs to parents who had to sue for their child’s injuries—and defending all those accused, too. In the time we had to write this work up, we had no way of quantifying those costs, but they are surely high.”

Media: “Psychological problems were one of the issues we associated with the Program from its beginnings. You mention that in the paper too.”

Emerson: “Yes, the data supported that assumption also. Reported psychological problems among high schoolers in the Program were about fifty-five times greater than the matched demographic in the general population.”

Media: “We also had reports of suicides among teens having increased.”

Ulrey: “I’m George Ulrey. I spent a lot of time working on that issue but we couldn’t draw any conclusions since only three reports of suicides appeared in the postings we analyzed. But the national data we got from the CDC showed that there were many more teen suicides than those three during the past two years. We did notice that the suicide rate among teens went from about 11 per 100,000 in the year before the Program began anywhere, to about 15 per 100,000 starting in the year after the Program was rolled out. That’s a circumstantial association, though, but it implies a 35 percent increase in teen suicides.”

Media: “You mentioned the CDC. How were they involved?”

Castile: “Yes. I researched the CDC data—ah, I’m Abbey Castile; they were extremely helpful in getting us epidemiological data matched by demographic for the closest categories we could get to theirs. And Janice and Herb were our data-crunchers. They were the ones who pored over the 37,500 reports to filter out the problem categories we analyzed. Their work was a key for the article.”

Media: “How representative do you think the student reports on which you based your data are, in terms of total numbers? I’m asking what fraction of the students of these high schools wrote about their experiences?”

Castile: “That was fascinating. Let’s see, in rough numbers, there were something like 15 million public high school students in about 26,400 public high schools. Private schools didn’t have the Program. Based on the numbers of student Program participants each week, we calculated that about 45 percent of the entire national high school population took part in a Program week over the study period. The rest were never in the Program, they escaped high school without ever having to do it. And of the students who participated, 1.6 percent of them wrote some kind of report on the website where this information was collected. We could analyze only about a third of those responses, those were the reports of an incident that fell into one of the seven social problem categories we had identified. So all of the negative information about the Program comes from a tiny number of responses. Which implies that a much larger number of students must have been affected, since it’s well known that voluntary responses to polls and such only represent a very small number of potential responses.”

Media: “So what did you conclude about the Program after you analyzed all of those reports?”

Emerson: “Who wants to answer that one?”

Toomey: “Sure, I’ll do it. We believe that our article clearly shows that the Program has resulted in a huge economic cost to the country in terms of dollars spent for medical care and legal costs, plus a huge social cost in terms of health, educational, and psychological harm to Program participants.”

Emerson: “So we urge that people read the article for themselves; it’s on line on the Polytech website. They were kind enough to put a link to it on the home page.”

Media: “Thank you, then, all of you, for your fascinating work and for talking with us this afternoon.”

“Well, that was how the press conference went, Robyn. We spoke to some of the officials at Polytech; apparently they were totally unaware of the study that these students were doing, but they were absolutely delighted with how professionally it was performed, and of course they’re thrilled with the public attention their university is getting as a result.”

“Thanks, Julian. We understand that people are flocking to Polytech’s website to read the study, so if the site is slow, be patient. It should be interesting to see how supporters of the Program react to this latest attack on its educational value. And in other local news...”

“Oh ... my ... God!” Cynthia exclaimed. “You were totally brilliant, Tom ... and the others ... freakin’ awesome! Can I touch you? Seriously, this has to be the final nail in the Program’s coffin.” She hugged him. “You’re a genius; I think I’ll keep you.”

“Well, that was all your idea, Cyn. You and Rog set it up. You were talking about attacks using flanking moves. Hitting them with student resistance was a frontal attack, but your also going after the basic idea underpinning the Program—what did you say the Marines called that? Going after their logistics, destroying the reserves. Wiping out their ability to counterattack. Shit, stop me—I’m getting carried away with the metaphors, aren’t I?”

“No, no, Tom, I love it!” Roger said. “We’ve gotta make you an honorary Marine kid, you know.”

“Well, I’m not at all far, right? My dad was a Navy pilot and my step-dad was Army,” Tom grinned.

“Well, bub, we’ll accept the Navy bit, but don’t try to make me accept that Army is equal to Marine, ok?” Cynthia growled.

“So you gonna do the evening talk show rounds now that you’re famous?” Roger kidded.

“Shit, I just want to get back to my real school work. That article did take a lot of work, and the others did a super job, too. Hell, after the interview, the head of the Humanities Department asked our group if any of us wanted to change majors—he said he could offer economics, sociology, even poly sci. Someone said they were nominating the paper for some kind of award. I just hope the fuss dies down soon.”

The fuss didn’t die down, at least not in the media nor in the public at large. Within a week of the media coverage of the article, parents all around the country were descending on their children’s high schools demanding that their running the Program be terminated, while political commentators of all persuasions were clamoring for its elimination. Lawmakers were scrambling to introduce bills for its end and state governors were considering issuing executive orders to prevent schools from running it.

Several weeks after the Program had virtually collapsed all around the country, Cynthia’s and Roger’s education team was required to demonstrate their team’s class project at Merritt High, in an anticlimactic series of high-school classes.

The team had finalized the ideas that they had developed into the outlines of their three classes. The class objectives emphasized relationship building and developing personal regard and respect for others, and was designed to be presented mainly in the high school’s psychology and health classes. The team had also come up with an auxiliary module to be presented in the physical education classes. In all of these classes, touching was to be encouraged as a powerful form of non-verbal communication and part of the health curriculum would include lessons in basic, non-erotic massage techniques which could be used for both relaxation and relationship building.

They took the classroom modules they had developed to Merritt High, and Denise and Kevin were recruited to help in the classes as peer demonstrators—their prior experience as Program helpers in their former high school plus their experience with tantric yoga and massage made them a natural choice.

Since this class was taking place during the final month of the school year, Cynthia’s team had chosen students from the fall term’s incoming freshman class—the middle schoolers who would become the freshmen. Permission to do this was granted because, as Roger pointed out, all of the students in the current health class had been together for the entire year; they knew each other very well, and the team’s curriculum was designed to show relationship building among a group of students whose members didn’t know each other very well. Since the high school drew its students from a number of middle schools, many of the incoming students wouldn’t know each other, so they got permission to work with the eighth graders.

Cynthia’s group set up their health class and PE class as a workshop for the week after solving some logistical details about when and where the class would be held.

Soon the first day of the workshop arrived and the students filed into the room. Cynthia’s team was there with the Merritt Health teacher who was acting as a monitor/chaperone.

“Okay, students,” Cynthia announced as the kids entered and looked around, confused at seeing gym mats instead of desks and chairs. “Please go to a mat and sit down, six people to a mat.”

There was the predictable shuffling and muttering as the kids tried to sort themselves into groups, friends trying to stay together.

“Now I notice that most mats are segregated by gender,” Cynthia smiled at the group. “Most of you wanted to sit near someone whom you knew and were comfortable with, correct?”

Murmurs of assent came from around the room.

Roger then spoke. “Soon you’ll be in high school, and in high school you’ll be making all kinds of new friends and learning about social and school relationships. In this class we’ll begin to show you a little about making connections with the people who’ll become your new friends. Everyone, move into a circle on your mats facing inward. Now hold hands with those on each side of you. In the next several minutes, tell your friends your name, age, and your middle school.”

After they had finished doing that, Rhonda walked into the center of the group of mats. “Now you all got a card with a number on it when you came in. Look up—see the number on the sign hanging over each mat? Get up and go to your numbered mat...”

When they got there, she went on, “Hey, isn’t that interesting! How did that happen—equal numbers of girls and boys on each mat!”

There were titters at Rhonda’s comment and the children glanced bashfully at everyone other than the kids on their own mat.

Rhonda went on, “You can sit, now. Girls, move to sit across from a boy on your mat. Sit closer, everyone, because you’ll take each other’s hands in your own, and look at your new friend. Or maybe this is even an old friend. Now introduce yourselves as you did on the first mat and this time tell your friend something about yourself, like a sibling or a pet or a favorite music group.”

After a minute of murmuring sounds, Rhonda resumed.

“Now, close your eyes and keeping them closed, both of you, girls first, take your partner’s hands in yours and touch them all over, get to know how your friend’s hands feel. Touch them over their palms, the backs, and the fingers, as much as you want, and try to memorize how they feel.”

The team watched as the girls did as she had commanded. The girls were stroking their hands over the boys’ hands, over their palms, fingers, and backs, and then running their fingers over the boys’ hands, letting them play lightly over wrists and palms. They were pleased to hear little sighs of pleasure from the children as they did this.

“Okay now, boys, take your girl’s hands and do the same, keeping your eyes closed.”

The teacher slipped up to Cynthia during this exercise.

“What’s this about?” she whispered.

“Something I remembered from drama classes. An old theater trick; it loosens up two people who don’t know each other very well for when they have to do a scene where they have to kiss or be intimate,” Cynthia whispered back. “It makes people feel very close—the hands are really a pretty erogenous organ, actually.”

Three minutes passed, and Rhonda spoke again. “Now, with your eyes still closed, tell your partner something about what you noticed about them; boys go first. What did you notice about the girl whose hands you are holding? What she’s wearing, about her hair, how her hands feel ... No peeking! ... Next, it’s the girls’ turn now.”

After a few minutes, Cynthia picked up the instructions. “Okay, now that everyone is an old friend...” Laughter. “ ... let me introduce Kevin and Denise, they’re seniors here, and will help us with some of the things we’ll be doing. They’re going to sit on the mat here and I want you guys to copy how they’re sitting.”

Kevin and Denise sat facing each other, cross-legged, knees touching.

Roger now spoke. “Now, people, watch how they’re placing their arms. Hands on your friend’s shoulders and arms touching along their lengths. Sit closer if you need to. Close your eyes and listen to your friend’s breathing for a minute ... Now, without opening your eyes, I want each boy to tell his new friend what he thinks the scariest part of high school will be. You can whisper, and even though I know that there’s nothing that can really scare a boy, right?” Giggles. “ ... that there’s something about high school that has you, well, just a bit concerned, okay? Girls, remember, this is a total secret, okay?”

“Yeah...” “Sure.” “Whatever...” were heard.

Cynthia continued, “Okay, girls, tell your friend something to make him feel better, more confident, how you can help him, or why he shouldn’t be concerned ... Good, now switch roles and girls, tell your friend about something about high school that you might find scary ... And boys, now, tell her how you can help her.”

The session continued, with the touching contact between the students getting increasingly intimate; finally, the girls were sitting between the boys’ legs, their backs resting against the boys’ chests and heads leaning together, while they held each other’s hands and were asked to whisper to each other the happiest thing that ever happened to them.