A school district in Portland, Maine this week approved access to prescription birth control--without notifying parents in its middle school health center. The health center will also provide immunizations and STD counseling for the students.
Middle school students? As in 6th to 9th graders? Wow! This was my initial reaction to reading the article in the Times this morning. But I suppose the reality is that some students are sexually active at very young ages, the school district reporting that 5 out of the 500 students polled admitted to being sexually active. Wow again!
Is this a violation of parents' rights? Is this a case of something being legal, but not ethical? I must note that I am not a parent, but I would hope that parents of 13-year-olds should be in the know if their children are engaging in any sort of sexual activity.
I understand that the school is being proactive in the face of a harsh reality, attempting to prevent STDs and pregnancy in their young students, as well as providing sex education, which may not be present at home. But I feel that this is a parental responsibility, and that parents should know that their children are engaging in these behaviors. I'd be interested to learn how others in the class feel about this.
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3 comments:
Well, here's a perspective. I became sexually active at 17. I would never, ever have discussed this with my parents, as they would have just forbidden it without any discussion. Rather than go ahead with unprotected sex, I went to a doctor and got birth control. If I hadn't been able to do that, I might well have gone ahead with unprotected sex.
As a parent, if you could only choose between your child having unprotected sex without your knowledge, or getting birth control and having sex without your knowledge, isn't the choice relatively easy?
Which is not to say that your report doesn't make me squirm a little...
It is also a medical situation, having girls on oral contraceptives at that early age. Many of them will smoke (especially this generation) and eat unhealthily, and that combo - the OC, smoking and diet are all risk factors for deep vein thrombosis. That is awfully risky on behalf of the school.
It's frustrating, because I agree with both comments. Having been through almost the exact same scenario personally (I was 18 y/o), I did the same thing in going to the on-campus health center @ my school and getting OC myself, too terrified to go to my parents.
Later, I made the choice with my own daughter to foster a relationship of honesty and openness, where she could talk with me about sex or birth control, since I didn't want it to be an issue the schools took control of or involved itself in with my child.
Fast-forward to today, it is frightening to think about the side effects produced by these drugs. While I never smoked, I didn't start becoming conscious of my diet until much later in life, never having weight problems as a younger woman.
Deep vein thrombosis, stroke, etc., are all real risk factors, associated with these drugs. When I think back to the fact that I was taking these drugs at 18 during the early '70's, at a time when they were even more powerful...and thinking about the health of my own daughter--it's a tough call.
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