How young is too young?

School Board Approves Birth Control Prescriptions at Maine Middle School

Thursday, October 18, 2007

PORTLAND, Maine — Pupils at a city middle school will be able to get birth control pills and patches at their student health center after the local school board approved the proposal Wednesday evening.

The plan, offered by city health officials, makes King Middle School the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to students in grades 6 through 8, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

There are no national figures on how many middle schools, where most students range in age from 11 to 13, provide such services.

"It's very rare that middle schools do this," said Divya Mohan, a spokeswoman for the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care.

The Portland School Committee voted 5-2 for the measure.

[snip]

At King Middle School, birth control prescriptions will be given after a student undergoes a physical exam by a physician or nurse practitioner, said Lisa Belanger, who oversees Portland's student health centers.

Students treated at the centers must first get written parental permission, but under state law such treatment is confidential, and students decide for themselves whether to tell their parents about the services they receive.

I'm getting mighty tired riled over education administrators making parental-type decisions on my 'behalf'. For that matter, I'm not at all thrilled by their choice to foist 'teaching to the test' (in our case the Maryland State Assessment or MSA) which means altering the curricula to focus almost exclusively on math and language skills.

As to provisioning children with condoms and B.C. pills--hell, no!

It's past due for parents to grow up and take back rights that we've ceded to bureaucrats and functionaries.

This is a turnpost