October 24, 2007
Have you heard about this yet?
When the Portland, Maine, School Committee voted 7-2 Wednesday night to make birth control pills available to middle school girls as young as 11, the response provided the latest evidence that adults still have trouble talking about sex with each other, much less with our kids. The debate was passionate, as you’d expect over an issue that touches so deeply our concerns about what our kids know and do — and when — and the messages we send them. To school officials and public health advocates who favored the measure, this was a question of confronting reality. Five of the 134 students who visited King Middle School’s health center last year admitted they were sexually active; in the last four years, Portland’s three middle schools reported 17 pregnancies, not counting miscarriages or unreported pregnancies that ended in abortions…. READ THE REST AT TIME.COM
Here are a few more links to news articles that cover this issue:
- The New York Times – Not All Are Pleased at Plan to Offer Birth Control at Maine Middle School
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution – SAT doesn’t stand for Sex Aptitude Test
- USA Today – Others not likely to follow school’s contraception move
- TheSpoof.com (satire/parody – entirely fictitious!) – “Today Spermicidal Sponge” introduces “The Sponge” Bob Square Pants birth control for Middle School girls
- Boston.com (Your Connection to the Boston Globe) – Baltimore middle schoolers have long had access to contraceptives
How do you feel about this? Which side are you on, and why? Are you on any side at all? How would you react, if you have a middle school aged child and this was happening in your school district?
Leave a comment, or leave me a link to the post where you responded to this issue, and I’ll post the link to your reaction here!
- Domestic Divapalooza – check out Angela’s post (and the resulting comments) about this issue.
- SimpleSahm- leave a comment for SimpleSahm!
Technorati Tags: contraceptives, portland school district, birth control in middle school, sex, sexuality, puberty, hormones, sexual education, teenagers, middle school, parenting
w/50+ comments on this topic over in my neck of the blogosphere I would say that it’s a pretty heated discussion.
Having a child in this age group really made me tune in to this issue.
I personally completely disagree with the decision. I realize that some parents do not address the issues with their children, but I don’t think that it is the schools responsibility to push birth control. I think that is completely overstepping the boundries. I am not a believer in the “It takes a village” theory. I think it’s the parent’s responsiblity as it has always been. I personally believe that it is taking away from MOST children’s childhood because SOME children aren’t parented the way they should be and decide that SEX is a good idea at this age!
I think about the time they start handing out condoms to my 12 year old in school is the time I’ll start homeschooling.