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Should middle schoolers be given contraceptive drugs? One Maine school thinks so Date published: 11/14/2007
IMAGINE THIS: A school official Ridiculous? Of course. But that's the equivalent of what a school division in Portland, Maine, has decided to do regarding an equally dangerous issue: chemical contraceptives. The school board has given an independently operated health clinic at King Middle School permission to pass out the pill, the patch, and even the morning-after pill to students as young as 11--without notifying parents. In fact, once contraceptives are prescribed, the clinic is, by state law, forbidden to tell parents that their daughters are taking it. A "good alternative to a not-so-good situation," as one parent put it? No--it's a bad solution to a very real problem. And parents who accede need to consider what they're giving up: the right to be involved in what could be a life-or-death--and emotionally fraught--decision for their daughter. Contraceptives are not without side effects. Neither is teen sex. Sexually active kids are twice as likely to become depressed, even suicidal, according to a Heritage Foundation study. Not all families, it's true, are able to rationally guide teens down a healthy road to maturity. Still, for the next level of authority--the school system--to throw the keys to sexual activity in the direction of middle-schoolers is irresponsible. Why not spend the money on programs that bolster kids' coping mechanisms so they can resist the pressure to have sex? What do kids think about the school board's decision? "I think it's stupid because what people are saying is that it's OK to be sexually active," one 13-year-old at the school told The New York Times. Out of the mouths of babes.
Before any child can be seen in this clinic the parent must
give permission. If a parent does not want to give up their
rights they do not have to grant permission to use the clinic.
How hard is that?
The thoughts of the author (and the 13 year old girl quoted) are spot on. It has always been difficult to be a parent and raise morally upright kids. Kudos to those who do. This school system and its policies are making it that much more difficult. The OpEd itself remains focused unlike the below respondent who is "all over the map" extrapolating innuendo ....the war, Fox news, etc. .... that are not relevant nor were they alluded to overtly or by suggestion in the OpEd. "Out of the mouth of babes."
I'm not sure if this news item has arrived to us distorted through the prism of Fox News. But it allows the FLS to continue its Anti-Sex Campaign (fighing in war is better for you!) FLS' harummphing on the "dangers" of birth control appears to take a page from extreme anti-abortion activitists who want to eliminate all birth control, not just abortion. Then FLS appears to endorse total abstinence education, which has been rejected by 14 states, and recently, Virginia.
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