Students taught how to put on condom when drunk

Jill Tucker
02/15/12
SF Gate:

Galileo High School celebrated Valentine's Day in a style befitting San Francisco on Tuesday as hundreds of students lined up to "marry" their sweethearts regardless of gender, sexual orientation or relationship status.

They then learned how to correctly put on a condom using goggles that gave them a drunken view of things, and played a variety of games that promoted safer sex.

The school's annual "Love Fest" drew hundred of teens in the school's central courtyard.

While a federal appeals court in San Francisco only last week ruled that a California ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, Galileo students and staff said their fake teen weddings had nothing to do with that. The event, sponsored by the Gay Straight Alliance and the Wellness Center, tried to promote acceptance and tolerance at school and safe decisions in the intimate moments that could happen at that age.

At one table, health teacher Raina Meyers put goggles on students that made their vision slightly blurry, simulating a drunken state. She then told them to put a condom on a wooden penis.

Most of the students left air in the condom tip, which could lead to breakage, and that prompted an instructional rebuke from Meyers.

"You're pregnant!" Meyers told one girl who failed the drunk-goggle test, and to a boy, "You have gonorrhea."

A handful of students milled about at the safer sex exhibits, but the biggest draw was the wedding table, where students fidgeted as they waited for their nuptials.

They signed a photocopied marriage certificate and said a quick "I do" when a student officiant asked about taking the other person as spouse.

The marriage was sealed with optional, one-size-fits-all plastic gold bands.

For love and credit

Many students admitted they decided to participate after teachers said they would get extra credit.

Others were serious sweethearts.

Seniors Farheen Shaikh and Shafa Almakra were best friends.

The two girls giggled as they took their vows and said they wanted that piece of paper to remember that moment in high school.

"I'll show my husband when I get married," Shafa said.

District officials acknowledged the school's activity on Valentine's Day might offend some, but school officials said the event highlights the joy and importance of healthy relationships, no matter who a student chooses to be with.

Most of the married teen couples consisted of two boys or two girls - friends or classmates.

"I think it encourages those who are afraid to walk around together," said English teacher Jacqueline Peters, who sponsors the Gay Straight Alliance. "No one is going to freak out if two guys marry each other even if they're straight. At the event, nobody cares - at least for a day."

Many school staffers and students wore bright shirts with the message, "Gay? Fine by me."

'Things are so much better'

It was a message school counselor Barry Barbour said he never heard when he was in high school.

"When I was in high school, I was picked on for being gay and I didn't even know I was gay," he said. "My nickname was Barry the Fairy."

There's still bullying, he acknowledged as he watched couple after couple sign their marriage certificates.

Boy-boy. Girl-girl. Boy-girl. Gay. Straight.

"It's not perfect," he said. "But things are so much better."

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. jtucker@sfchronicle.com

This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle