Intrusion on our children? I believe that is exactly the situation in New York.
Apparently the New York City Department of Education is expanding its sex education curriculum to include the distribution of…get this…morning after pills.
Yes, you read that right. The morning after pill is being made available to girls in high school, and guess what? Parental consent isn’t necessary.
Girls as young as 14 years old will have access to this and their parents won’t even know. Yes, I definitely call this an intrusion.
Okay, so there is the possibility of opting out. But of course, that means the students have to actually let their parents know about the program and ask them to sign something. How many will actually do that?
This program is being supported because of the number of girls who are becoming pregnant before they turn 17 years old, along with the high number of them who are sexually active. So in an effort to prevent pregnancies, the school system has decided to take their free condom distribution a little further.
This is what bothers me…first free condoms, then free morning after pills. What’s next? A free abortion and the parents don’t have to know?
Now I’m not completely against sex education. But I believe that if it is going to be taught, it should also include teaching abstinence.
No matter, there are limits and boundaries to teaching sex education in the schools. Offering students’ condoms and morning after pills, without parents having to be notified, is crossing the line.
How about we spend more time fixing other issues in our school systems? Like the number of students who don’t graduate, the lack of physical activity or music programs. Oh I know, how about addressing the unhealthy lunches our students are eating?
My thought is, stick to academics. But don’t intrude on our children.
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Talking to Your Teen About Sex
Photo by Liz | populational in Flickr