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'Birthday Sex' choice spurs protest against CPS
August 6, 2009 3:36 PM | 32 Comments
Community leaders gathered at Chicago Public Schools headquarters today to denounce the choice to head up a back-to-school campaign: A singer with the hit song "Birthday Sex."

"This is not the appropriate forum for the boosting of him and the endorsing of him because when Chicago Public Schools administrators. . .are seen as endorsing this type of behavior amongst the children, we have a problem," said William Dock Walls of the Committee for a Better Chicago and a candidate for governor. "We're starting down that slippery slope to increased STDs, increased HIV, increased pregnancies and abortions."


The small group's comments came two days after CPS chief Ron Huberman and Mayor Richard Daley announced the selection of Jeremih Felton, a Morgan Park High School alum, to be the face of the campaign.

Though Jeremih's song is popular on airwaves and some students may have been aware of it prior to the campaign, the fact that CPS "then adopts him," Walls said, "augment[s]" his exposure to others. If CPS doesn't reverse the decision, there will be "consequences," he said.

"Some of the consequences: that we will have protests. . .at CPS and that we will discourage attendance on the first day of school to send a real strong protest message that this will not be tolerated in our community," Walls said.

When pressed about discouraging school attendance over a song, Walls said, it's "over a concept."

"If children go to school with birthday sex on their mind, they can't learn anything," he said. "Can you imagine a 6-year-old saying to another 6-year-old, 'It's my birthday, come and have birthday sex with me? And it's OK because the teachers told us and the principals told us and the administrators told us to listen to Jeremih. He's our role model.'"

On Tuesday, Daley brushed away questions about the appropriateness of the song, saying the artist has a right to "free speech."

"He's a young man, [with a] back-to-school message, a young man who has had great success recording, producer, going to school, went to public school," Daley said. "Graduated from Morgan Park, and like anything else, he's willing to help other youngsters in our public school system."

But Gilda Walker, a member of both the Committe for a Better Chicago and Concerned Women, said the message promotes teen sex.

"I don't think that should be the message sent to our children going back to school," she said. "If CPS is so concerned about music, why don't they put the arts back into the school so the children can learn the different genres of music and be able to appreciate why and how music is constructed?" she said.

Delilah Johnson, 22, a junior at DePaul University and 2005 alum of Percy L. Julian High School, said the selection of a celebrity for the back to school campaign did impact her and others.

"It set the tone for the year. It set the tone for what the teachers expected of you," she said. "And if the teachers don't expect anything better than what Jeremih is singing about in these lyrics, that's an insult to us."

-- Lauren R. Harrison

It is an inappropriate song for a 'back to school' rally.

dreamfactory313 said:

I agree.

Plus, it's a stupid song

That's what his dumb ass gets.

thats why u dont come out with a song like that....it limits ur audience

^^ Yep. Career over before it began.

Come on guys. The lyrics are harmless.
Shit he sings Girl you know i i i, Girl you know i i i,
for half of the damn song.

phunkdaddy said:

Harmless and stupid.

Good-hate that dumb ass song and it is inappropriate.

To me, he's too young to alienate himself from a teenage audience. Maybe the school should have told him not to sing that particular song and just make an appearance.