Don’t Be A Dum Dum About Your Health

In the late 1990s, my high school — and I think the whole district — did a policy change where the front office, nurse, teachers, etc., were no longer allowed to pass out condoms or provide any type of advice on how to avoid pregnancy.

We already had a couple of girls get pregnant that year, so there was a bit of an outrage about this new change, not that I think many people went to the front office to get condoms.

One of my friends lived within spitting distance of the free health clinic, so two or three times a week, I started going there and getting free condoms in bags of twelve. I purchased a giant bag of Dum Dum lollipops and tied them together with rubber bands. Within a few weeks, I had students that I didn’t know come up to me asking for a lollipop or two. Teachers were fully aware, even more so when I threw a few across the classroom, but they never said a word.

My senior year, zero girls got pregnant, and the health clinic started giving me multiple bags of condoms at a time so I only had to go every few weeks, as they fully supported what I was doing.

I had somehow forgotten about this, as it was twenty years ago, until someone messaged me on Facebook asking if I was the Condom Girl from [High School] and if I remembered them. I guess that is better than Dum Dum Girl.