'Novinhas', Adolescent Girls Attend Funk Dance Parties after Class

05/25/2018 - 12h31

Mogi das Cruzes is 62 kilometers outside of São Paulo and while the maximum may have been 13ºC on Saturday, May 19th, at night the "temperature" was still pretty high at the local bus terminal.

Girls - many of whom appeared to be no older than 12 - could be seen in short shorts, mini dresses, mini skirts and some even wore makeup. They would arrive in groups of two or three and they either met up with older girls who were wearing very similar clothes or they were escorted by boys to cars parked in the vicinity.

Drivers charge each passenger R$ 10 (roughly US$ 3) - discounts apply for groups of five - and they drop them off at funk dance parties that are organized on Facebook and are more or less kept secret.

The event page on the social network did not include a specific location. The addresses are only revealed on the day of the party through WhatsApp groups. A lot of the messages sent, both before and after the parties, resort to a coded language that outsiders can't understand. But allusions to unprotected sex and seixst comments are quite explicit and frequent.

Public school teachers are concerned about reports that fifth and sixth-graders are attending such parties.

"The students can't stop talking about these dance parties in ghetto neighborhoods. We know that these parties take place on the outskirts, in the metropolitan region of São Paulo and in the countryside, but public agents don't go to these places. It's like the Gaza Strip," said Erasmo Lopes, 59, a vice-principal at a statewide school in Osasco, which is in the metropolitan area of São Paulo.

	Marlene Bergamo/Folhapress
	The event page on the social network does not include a specific location

School teachers in the countryside have mentioned hearing reports of girls that were leaning against walls and competing with one another to see who could have more sexual intercourse. The more guys a girl has sex with, the more money she makes. According to the reports, if she passes out, then she loses all the money she earned. It is unlikely that condoms are being used at such events.

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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