Maine Middle School Clinic OK’s Birth Control
File this one under extremely perverse, but King Middle School in the state of Maine will be opening up a program to provide BIRTH CONTROL to its students. Most Middle School kids, that’s right CHILDREN, fall into the 11-13 year old range.
The plan comes on the heels of 17 pregnancies in 4 years in the district from this school. Now I’m no doctor or scientist… but statistics such as ‘5 out of 134 students who hit the clinic during the 06-07 school year reporting having sexual intercourse’ doesn’t seem to me to be an epidemic in need of a government educational drug program. Given the admittedly minuscule number of sexually active students in the middle school… why is this even an issue?
This, once again boils down to parents rights and parental responsibility… and both are being tossed aside here. My biggest problem with this whole thing, aside from the fact that people perceive 11 year olds having sex as NORMAL behavior, is that this plan falls under the current practice of the school to hand out parental consent forms covering “medical attention” should their child need it, WITHOUT parental notification.
Medical attention by a school nurse is TYLENOL for a headache or Pepto for an upset tummy, NOT the morning after pill.
mgroves
18 Oct, 2007
This just strengthens my view that we need school choice. This sort of thing would not be an issue. If you want to send your kid to Sex Crazed Junior High, you can, or you can send them to Convent Junior High, or all points in between.
James
18 Oct, 2007
Precisely… and I think we’re headed there.
California makes news for reverse discriminating against the majority to pander to their minority student body and now this… among those making big news.
Competition only HELPS, why it would hurt to allow people choice in education at grade level is something I’ll never grasp. You worry about where to go to college based on their philosophies, goals, teaching staff and academic acclaims… why should where you go to grade school be any different?
Libertarian Jason
19 Oct, 2007
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…. Its time to separate school and state. If this were a private school, would it be an issue?
-LJ
James
19 Oct, 2007
Welcome back Jason… long time no see.
Well I welcome any and all competition in the education system… I could only see this happening in a private system IF the parents allowed it. Since the government doesn’t like us to tell IT what it can teach our kids, you’re just asking for it.
Spike
22 Oct, 2007
I would imagine that this same school board is now debating the good intention of handing out battery-powered vibrators in the Senior High Schools to be used only on school property!
Brick Sandwich
30 Oct, 2007
I’m annoyed that the school is having to take ANY action. Each child there is an extension of their parent’s parenting skills (or lack thereof). Each pregnant pre-teen is representative of a failure in his/her own home and should not be catalyst for facility wide change to address non-issues in other childrens’ lives.