by Rebecca Mikulin

Created on: September 22, 2008

Whether schools give out contraceptives to students or not is not a moral question, it is a question of schools stepping over the line. It seems like there's an increase in parents who think that once they send their kids to school, that school is in charge of raising the kids to be "good people". Additionally, school staff often seems to forget that the children they see every day are not their own and they do not take sole responsibility for these children; their job is to educate kids. End of story. This does not mean teaching moral issues or "life issues".

What is the responsibility of a school? It IS their responsibility to teach the kids the mechanics of sex, the stages of gestation, the possible diseases that can result from sexual activity and what is available in terms of contraceptives and medical care. However, this should be a refresher course that reinforces what the parents taught these students long before. A friend of mine just told me about the middle school in her small town that has about 400 kids; of those children, ages 11-14, 16 are pregnant. Obviously a sex education class in high school comes far too late for some kids, and that is something the parent should have already discussed with their children, school should merely fill in some of the physical and medical details.

What is not the responsibility of the school? It is not the school's responsibility to tell a student what is or is not right to do, that is the parent's job. Additionally, if the students want contraceptives it is not the school's responsibility to give it to them nor should they, the student needs to be mature enough to discuss the issue with their parents. Not only does this teach some important lessons about uncomfortable conversations, it also helps keep the parents informed about what their children are doing. Students need to learn how to constructively present their issues with authority figures and discuss them, and this does not mean school personnel.

While I think it is important for anyone who is planning to have sex to have access to things that will prevent unwanted pregnancies because the person who suffers the most from an unprepared parent is the only one that never had a choice in the matter, I firmly believe that it is completely out of the realm of what schools are meant to be for.

The views on the morality of contraceptives and pre-marital sex varies in every family, but regardless of your views this issue is one that must be dealt with in the family. Schools are for learning information...history, science, even how to cook...and home is the place to learn about life skills and moral beliefs.

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