Posted on 11/15/2005 6:27:54 AM PST by NYer
Berkeley High School in the Bay Area university town has a registered Condom Club that offers students 12 free condoms week.
An ad for the club in the Student Daily Bulletin read: "Having sex? Thinking about having sex? Come to CONDOM CLUB at lunch in A205. One meeting will get you a sticker on your ID that gives you 12 free condoms each week from the BHS Health Center."
In a column for the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, a Berkeley writer whose son is a freshman at the high school said he found out about the club through an e-mail dispatch of the Daily Bulletin.
The invitation also has been broadcast a few times over the school's loudspeaker system, said G. Pascal Zachary.
Zachary said that what "left me pondering the ingenuity of high school administrators, was the number of condoms on offer.
"Twelve condoms a week! I don't know sex workers who need that many condoms," he wrote.
The writer said he "was stewing over the Condom Club for a few weeks when I finally got the nerve to ask my son whether he joined. 'No, dad, I didn't.' I wasn't sure whether to be glad or sad, since I didn't have the nerve to ask him whether he's having sex."
Zachary said he just told his son "his teachers are right: When he does finally have sex, he must wear a condom.
"When I tried to demonstrate how to use one, he stopped me and, shaking his head, said, 'Dad, they taught us in sixth grade.'
"Oh. You never mentioned it."
An ad for the club in the March 23 edition of the Student Daily Bulletin offered such instruction.
"Having sex? Thinking about having sex?" the ad read. "Come to room A205 at lunch on April 4th for condom club. Learn to use a condom correctly and get free condoms from the Health Center."
A report in North Gate News Online, a publication of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, said the school's health clinic, which advertises the Condom Club, helped make the school's pregnancy rate the lowest in the state.
The health center, according to the school's website, "knows that students have the ability to make their own health care decisions, and supports their right to take responsibility for themselves and their health. By health, we mean physical, emotional and sexual well-being. We will continue to create a safe space for students that is free of judgment."
The high school, which has about 3,000 students, touts its many clubs and organizations as a "great way to make friends and get involved."
Students can start their own clubs by submitting a club registration form to the student activities director and acquiring a faculty sponsor.
Other clubs have included Alternative Chess, Gay-Straight Alliance, German Film Club, Asian Pacific Island Club, Hip Hop Society and the Jewish Student Union.
"....touts its many clubs and organizations as a "great way to make friends and get involved." ...
Yeah, thats a great way to make freinds and get involved.
How many students are over 18? What are the statutory rape laws in California?
The only thing about this story I find a little out of ordinary is that the father does not have the kind of relationship with his son where he can talk to him about that kind of stuff easily.
ProLife Ping!
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Too divisive.
How about a Christian Club??
From a personal standpoint, I never fooled around in high school or in the time before I married after that. I cannot relate, therefore, to this kind of thing and have very little sympathy for those who cannot keep it zipped. If I could do it, why can't they?
Give a kid a condom, he'll have sex and risk his life, thinking he's safe from all harm. Teach him about the dangers of casual sex, and he'll live a longer life.
The kids will sell them or use them as water balloons. What does the school care? It's probably taxpayer money.
Remember to factor in the slut teachers the guys get to screw these days...
I wonder why they don't take this same approach when it comes to under-18 smoking, or use of certain kinds of drugs?
This is just one of the many reasons we chose to move away from Berkeley in 1968 (we saw the beginning of the trend) and why we finally left California altogether in 1973. I am so happy that we chose to raise our children elsewhere.
I can't imagine the depths to which my home state has degenerated.
Whose the girl? She looks familiar...
Just a wild guess:
Unenforced?
Back when I was in school & college there, it was, "A drivers license is your learners permit, but 15 will get you 20."
They meant it, too.
Because they are cursed with such animal magnetizm that they eventually exhaust themselves beating off the women, that they are then attacked mercilessly by bevies of bouncing behemoths?
TWELVE FREE CONDOMS PER WEEK!?
TWELVE TIMES IN ONE WEEK AS TEENS!?
Don't they have school work (says an 18 year old Catholic Jesuit High School Senior)?!
Sheesh
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