Posted on 04/07/2008 3:42:34 AM PDT by Man50D
(NaturalNews) A middle school in Portland, Maine is considering a proposal to provide birth control pills and patches to students as young as 11 years old. King Middle School launched a reproductive health program after five of the 135 students who visited the school's health center in 2006 reported being sexually active. The program already provides condoms to students, but the new proposal would expand this to include prescriptions for birth control pills and patches (which would then have to be purchased at a pharmacy).
The contraceptives could be dispensed without the knowledge of parents, although written permission would be required for children to receive (unspecified) services from the health center.
The proposed program has attracted controversy, with some people accusing the schools of taking away parental power and encouraging children to have sex too early. But school officials dispute these claims.
"We do certainly sit down and speak with them about why [being sexually active] is not a good choice," said Amanda Rowe, the school's nurse coordinator. "But there are some who persist... and they need to be protected."
Logan Levkoff, a sexologist and relationship expert, said that while the school may be stepping into a role that would better be filled by parents, many parents do not feel comfortable enough to do so. "Parents should be the sex educator for their children," Levkoff said. "The problem is not every parent feels empowered [to do so]."
Parents interviewed by ABC News were split on their feelings about the proposal.
"I don't think I would want my child in middle school to be getting birth control pills unless I had something to do with it," one woman said.
But another woman, a mother, disagreed: "I think that education at that age is appropriate because our culture is saturated with messages about sex," she said.
Stupid leftists think there is no connection between incentive and behavior choices.
SATANIC leftists KNOW there is a connection, and know the misery their policies cause, but do it anyway in order to further their own power.
This is how every “liberal” policy works:
1) There is maybe 1 in 1000 experiencing the consequences of a behavior that they may or may not have had control of.
2) The left forces other people, through the government, to pay for (alleviate) the consequences so that the individual does not experience those consequences (thereby removing the pressure to make other decisions).
3) Obviously, to us at least, the incidence of these behavioral choices increase.
4) Libs are surprised that “the problem was worse than we thought!” and demand expanded consequence alleviation policies.
5) Go to step 2.
And you’re right - the left doesn’t respect ANY freedoms except those that are associated with sex.
Planned Parenthood has been caught on tape telling a “13 yr old” not to disclose that her boyfriend who impregnated her was 22.
Great analogy.
Bottom line, in your scenario, would be those with the ability to avoid the consequences of shoplifting would be
A) More likely to engage in shoplifting
B) Less likely to engage in shoplifting
C) No effect on the likelihood of shoplifting
Liberals would pick C 9 times out of 10.
I agree. I could also see where it would make sense to have the parents sign a release where they would specify EXACTLY what OTC medications their child can be given (asprin, mydol, etc.) and the school be LIMITED to what is on the list. But I really don’t see the harm in allowing older students (say 12 and up) to have things like asprin or Advil in their backpacks or purses.
I thought that BY LAW they were required to report even SUSPECTED abuse. And here they're aiding and abetting known abuse?
That is soooooo wrong on so many levels.
I don’t think that there are many OTC pills that still come in a gelcap; however, kids who are going to bring illegal drugs will do it anyway.
You’re right.
That is the reasoning school officials use for banning any and all drugs- Zero tolerance. Reality is schools were able to handle this sort of thing when I was in school. We were allowed to have our prescriptions and OTC meds, but any suspected illegal drug use and school officials called in police and notified parents to handle it. At some point schools began to take on the role of law enforcement and parents and in many cases refused to call in law enforcement even if a student was caught dead-bang with illegal drugs at school. Students quickly got the message that schools would not report them to LEOs so felt free to possess, use, and distribute drugs at school.
There was an incident at our high school a few years ago when two girls were caught red-handed smoking pot in the bathroom. The school’s reaction was to treat it as a rule infraction and notify parents and suspend the students for 5 days. The mother of one of the girls was a police officer and when she arrived at the school she pointed out that what the girls did was illegal and they should be reported to police and fact those consequences in addition to school actions. The school refused to involve police and she took her own daughter into custody and took her to jail for booking.
Most of the issues with drugs in schools is of their own making- schools need to focus on education and let LEO handle illegal activities. School officials are not trained to deal with illegal activities and they prove it over and over with their wacky responses to the zero tolerance rules.
Using their reasoning, they should offer "make-out rooms" too. I guess anything to keep the abortion mills in business.
No disagreement here. We had drug-sniffing dogs when I was in school; I had cleaned my locker that day, though.
It won’t be long until the liberaltarian drug crowd shows up to start arguing that pot should be legalized and public schools should be outlawed.
I'm no libertarian, but I'll support that second option.
I think that public schools should be entirely left to the states. The problem with ending public education is that it quickly promotes egalitarianism.
Oh? How so?
I mistyped. It would end any semblance of egalitarianism and create elitism with a permanent underclass.
Thought you had joined some bizarre cult there for a moment.
Sounds like "mom" should have arrested the Principal as an accomplish or "aiding and abetting".
Take a glance at The Ten Cent Solution, an eye-opening account of the successes of parent-supported private schools in the very poorest neighborhoods of India and Africa. A convincingly different take on the subject, I think.
See what I wrote in #56.
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