Michigan law states that the age of consent for any sexual activity is 16, meaning that any individual under the age of 16 cannot legally consent to any form of sexual activity. When asked if high schoolers generally follow that law, Troy High School’s School Resource Officer, Brian Jones, replied, “Absolutely not.”
Source A, one of three anonymous Troy High School students, is 17 and has had 13 penetrative sexual partners. In terms of non penetrative partners: “I don’t even know the number. I honestly wouldn’t know the number of that.” If he’s not in a relationship, it happens about once every three months. However, if he’s in a relationship at the time, it’s “a lot.” For him, most of his experiences were through friends-with-benefits agreements, which are non-commital relationships based on on-and-off sexual encounters.
Source B is also 17 and has been having sex for about a year. He has had two partners, both of them one night stands.
Source C, 17, lost his virginity at 12 and became sexually active around 14. He has had 10-20 sexual partners and 20-30 non-penetrative partners. He restricts his sexual activity to relationships and has sex once a week. However, before moving to the United States, at a time in his life when he was very sexually active, he would “get f*cked up at a party and end up f*cking someone [he] didn’t know.”
As to whether having sex affects men versus women, sources agreed across the board that it’s more of a source of shame for women than men, with Source B agreeing that “Women try to hide it more. The men tend to brag about it more.”
Source B divulged that around 30% of his daily conversations are about sex. With Source A, it depends on the person and the context, so it could range anywhere from 10-40% of daily conversations: “It just gets brought up a lot.”
Despite this, no source believes there is a significant sex culture at Troy High School, nor is it a problem, just “a thing that happens in highschool,” according to Source A. The measure of whether a school has a significant sex culture or where sex is an issue seems to be the prevalence of teenage pregnancy throughout the school. Because this issue isn’t as widespread at Troy High School, sources agreed that while they don’t think Troy High School has a prevalent sex culture, other high schools in the district, like Troy Athens and Troy Career Center, do.
There seems to be a small but palpable sex culture in Troy High School, however. Although Source A doesn’t think sex is an issue in the school, he does believe that it’s prevalent enough to be considered a culture.
Officer Brian Jones is unsure of the “hard, fast facts,” but, in his opinion, underage sex in Troy High School is “on par with the vaping issues throughout the school and even drinking alcohol.”
At this time, Troy High School assistant principal Dan House declined to give an interview, stating in a message, “I am not aware of a sex addiction/sex culture at Troy High.”
Source A stated that knowing the laws surrounding underage sex did not discourage him from participating. Two more anonymous sources, Sources B and C, stated that they weren’t even aware that such laws existed while they were having underage sex. Source B added that “Even if I did know it, I still would have done it.”
As for what can cause students to disregard the law in favor of having sex, Troy High School Health 1 teacher Lindsay Noble blames it partially on young love and the feeling that “there’s the next step [in the relationship], and in order to keep that person [she or he has] to do this for them.”
Students had a different take. Source A attributed it to an adrenaline rush, in part: “[your] dopamine level rises when they’re around you so [your] brain automatically assumes something thrilling is happening.” In his opinion, this feeling can be addictive: “You can get addicted to sex, that feeling, that rush, that connection with a person to the point where it’s nothing and it’s just something that you feel like you need when you really don’t.”
In Source B’s opinion, people’s level of extroversion determines whether they are sexually active: “The people who have personality.” Source C disagrees, although he thinks the question isn’t easy to answer, adding that “quiet kids [will] turn out really freaky.” Source A believes that race and culture are dividing factors, with Caucasians and African Americans as “way more” sexually active than Asians which, in his opinion, is a result of stricter parenting and cultural values. He added that those who are balanced across certain hobbies like listening to music, going out, or drug use tend to be more sexually active. Athletes were named as the most sexually active group between all sources. According to Source C, this could be a result of being “popular and [getting] attention.” Source A also acknowledged that most relationships at Troy High School have sex as a component.
All sources answered with varying levels of uncertainty, regarding the question as near-impossible to answer. There is no one factor or combination of them that definitively denotes whether an individual is sexually active or not. As Source C put it, “Everyone’s freaky, I don’t know what to tell you.”
Why do teenagers have sex? Apart from the obvious hormonal component, Noble believes that “it’s that mentality of ‘it’s not gonna happen to me’ right like ‘I’m not gonna get pregnant, I’m not gonna get an STD.’” This immortality complex, coupled with the social pressure she says students face to fit in is what primarily drives their actions.
Source A believes that home life and childhood are the main components, stating that those who are sexually active are “attracted to what [they] never had.” He notices that this factor is exemplified through the student body’s cultural makeup, as well.
Source A recalls what influenced him to lose his virginity: “I was at a party and a really hot girl was like “hey, let’s go back to my room” and I was like “sh*t, ok.” He was 13. Source A divulged that certain adult influences during his childhood led him to follow the “f*ck it, I’m gonna f*ck” mentality, something he deeply regrets, along with how young he began and a few of his partners.
Source C considers losing his virginity, at 12, to be rape. He became sexually active around 14 or 15: “I don’t think I made the conscious decision of ‘I want to start having sex,’ it just kinda happened.” Although, currently, Source C only has sex when in a relationship, when he was more sexually active than he is right now, the discernment between having sex or not “took being sedated and for the girl not to look horrible.”
According to Officer Jones, underage individuals who partake in producing child sexually abusive material (CSAM) face a possible 20-year felony. Asking an underage boyfriend or girlfriend for such material is considered a felony and can incur a 20-year sentence. Additionally, distributing CSAM is a 7-year felony while merely possessing it is a 4-year felony.
When asked if he had ever sent or received pornographic material, or what would be considered CSAM, Source A admitted to both counts, the reason being “validation. Honestly, you just want validation of ‘I look good and damn this girl looks so good that she’s willing to put herself in such a vulnerable position.’”
In regards to pornographic material, Jones warns students that “with the Internet, once it’s out there, it is out there for everybody to see,” something that those involved are painfully reminded of when such material is circulated.
Sending or receiving this material comes with consequences outside of the law. Source A recalls being asked to pay a bribe so that his own material would not get circulated. He also mentioned that his friends have received similar threats and that some threats have become a reality when material is leaked.
Regarding its effects, Jones discourages students from participating, stating that “It has a pretty terrible effect on those involved…there’s a lot of trauma that comes along with it.”
Underage sex doesn’t incur just legal implications, however. Noble cites sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) as one of the most detrimental consequences of underage sex: “If you’re protecting yourself against [pregnancy], great, but the real worry should be STDs and I don’t think that that has hit yet because a lot of times [students] don’t know they have one until 20 years down the road when they have ovarian cancer, or rectal cancer, or they can’t get pregnant from an STD they had when they were 16.” Noble concluded recommending that “If you think you’re mature enough and mentally capable of being sexually active, then you need to be able to talk about partners you’ve had, you need to get tested [for STDs], [and] you need to learn how to properly, if you’re not ready for a kid, prevent that.”
Source A agreed that getting tested for STDs is important, stating his reasons as “just to play safe because STDs can lay dormant before they actually fully show.” He expounded on the deeper effects of getting tested, affirming that he would not want to “pass anything on” to someone he is in a relationship with.
Sex education seems to have a differing impact on students. According to Noble, the Health 1 curriculum is abstinence-based, meaning that refraining from participating in indulgent activities, like drugs and sex, is encouraged throughout the class. When asked if taking Health helped discourage him from being sexually active, Source A referenced a middle school health class that was abstinence based and promoted waiting until marriage, “which confused [him] because that’s more of a religious topic.” He went on to say that the class made it seem like no matter what contraceptives or preventative measures were used, sexual consequences like STDs and pregnancy were inevitable, something that he believes “really discouraged a lot of people that [he knows] from ever even thinking about it.”
Regarding whether Health 1 actually discourages students from being sexually active, Noble comments “I hope so, I think so.” She thinks that one of the main disadvantages is that Health 1 is mainly taken by freshmen who, in her opinion, have a lower level of maturity and “they’re not taking it as seriously.”
According to the MiPHY survey, which Troy High School students take in ninth and eleventh grades, Oakland County is seeing a recent decline in highschool STD cases.
Noble believes that a possible improvement would be to offer Health 2 to upperclassmen, where certain topics can be delved into deeper. She thinks that “if it’s ingrained, maybe sophomore, junior year, yes, you’re gonna miss some kids who have already experimented, but you could go into further detail. You get that different level of maturity.”
Being sexually active can incur invisible consequences, as well. Noble emphasized that one’s future relationships can be detrimentally affected by underage sex. The release of the oxytocin hormone during sex, specifically with the first person it’s done with, leads to a unique biochemical imprint with that person: “If you have sexual relationships with someone and that is the first person you’re having this experience with, you’re automatically in a unique way, attached to them, different than any other person you’ll experience that with.”
In Source A’s opinion, although sex is essential to having a relationship, he agrees that it can also destroy one: “It kinda ruined some relationships for me cause all it was was two hypersexual people doing nothing but having sex inside of a relationship.” He expounded by explaining that a relationship in which sex is the only meaningful thing can affect mental health, “guilt-wise, feeling-wise.”
He also mentioned that academic performance can be negatively affected, since “you’ll put the school off because for something that feels really good, you’re gonna f*cking put off the sh*t that’s not gonna be really good.”
Source C revealed the more detrimental effects of early sexual activity, explaining that after losing his virginity at 12, sex was a lot of what he was thinking about: “[It] probably f*cked up my initial mental development cause I wanted to have sex all the time.”
Source C doesn’t believe sex is a major part of his life anymore. He doesn’t talk about it excessively throughout the day, except for the occasional mention to his girlfriend, stating, “it’s not invading my life, it’s not making me go crazy.”
As for their final remarks, a range of advice was given. Jones implores students to “save [themselves] the heartache, the headache, the mental anguish and don’t participate, whatever it is.”
Source A advises to “be safe. Be confident in who you’re doing it with for your first time, make sure it’s a comfortable experience.”
Noble’s parting words to students are: “Keep your pants on, or at least try to.”
