By Matthew Monks
They say it's cool, fun and forbidden. It's happening at IS 231 – it could be called “Sex in the Seventh Grade.”
The principal could not be reached for comment, but a group of 12- and 13-year-old girls recently showed off their multicolored “sex bracelets” outside their school on Springfield Boulevard.
They said they could get suspended or a call home if they were caught wearing them.
“I just got a phone call for wearing mine,” said Kalina, 12, a seventh-grader. “My mom was mad.”
She said her math teacher scolded her and made her remove the half-dozen bracelets twined around her wrists.
Purchased from a nearby beauty shop, the bracelets come in dozens of colors and their significance varies from the innocent (hugging) to the unmentionable.
According to the girls, black means sex; blue is oral sex or sex in the water; pink means flashing; and gold means making out.
Brown, purple and yellow are not fit for a family newspaper. In fact, not only would they make a porn star blush, they allude to sex acts that are illegal in parts of the country.
The seventh-graders said the bracelets can mean that a girl has done a deed or would be willing to.
“They say if you don't do it, then it's a curse,” said Brittany, 13.
The girls maintained that the fad is mostly a joke and has spread all over the city. The New York Post recently ran a front-page story about a Richmond Hill Catholic school girl expelled for wearing the bracelets.
A city Department of Education spokeswoman said the bracelets are not a problem in the public schools.
“As far as the department knows, there are no issues with the so-called bracelets in middle schools,” Margie Feinberg said. “We have not heard of any concerns or issues.”
She did not know if the principal had banned the bracelets at IS 231 but said that if the principal wished to take that action, it was within his power.
“It's up to each principal to maintain order,” Feinberg said.
It is appropriate for schools to forbid the bracelets, especially if there is a chance that students are actually engaging in the acts they represent, said Jeffrey Halperin, a professor of child psychology at Queens College.
“It's almost like they're wearing them as a badge of honor. That's disturbing at that age,” Halperin said. “If I was on the school personnel, I wouldn't allow it.”
He said it is natural for 12- and 13-year-olds to joke about sex. But children wearing “trophies” of sex acts is not healthy. Even if they are just a joke, Halperin said the bracelets should be discouraged.
“The extent to which the reality and the fantasy and the make-believe part of it merge can be worrisome to some.”
Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
