Yes, you read that correctly. A nine-year-old girl was suspended from a local, small town school for having a condom in her backpack. The condom was given to her on the bus by another older student who recieved the same punishment.
WTF?
The story was not covered in the paper, but the father of the girl wrote a letter to the editor (which I don’t feel comfortable posting here because I know the guy, it’s a small town and he signed his full name).
And the school boards wonder why we have such a high rate of teen pregnancy. :dubious:
We’re not talking about a teen. Why did a 9 year old have a condom? It’s a valid question, obviously an older kid gave it to them. But when a 9 year old happens to have a condom I do think authority figures need to step in and deal with the situation.
I don’t really know why she was suspended, possibly because of county standard operating procedures. But you seem to be saying it shouldn’t even matter that a 9 year old has a condom, I definitely think it should, the 9 year old should be talked to and their parents notified.
On the basis of the information in the OP there is no indication that the 9yo is sexually active, or that she intended to use the condom. I don’t understand what kind of school rule she is supposed to have broken. The most that should have happened is for a teacher to say: “Don’t bring this kind of thing to school again.”
But when an older student gives a nine-year-old a condom to put in her backpack, something’s not quite kosher–at least it merits somebody sitting them both down, if just to find out what’s going on…
I remember when I was in fourth grade - so probably around nine years old - a kid in my grade was suspended for having a condom.
We all knew what condoms were. If you think your nine year old doesn’t know, you’re blind. They know. All of the kids on the school grounds know, and they all talk about it even though they’re not quite sure what sex is for.
Personally, I think it’s a stupid thing to suspend kids for. They’re condoms, for Christ’s sake. It’s not like they’re packing heat or carrying knives or dope. It’s a condom. Ooooo, the kids might learn what sex is! THEY MIGHT WANT TO HAVE IT. Oh dear Christ what now?
rolls eyes Sorry. But I don’t think condoms should count as contraband under any circumstances.
Maybe, tashabot, but she’s not the secretive kind and tends to be pretty upfront about what she hears on the playground. 4th grade is the oldest class in her school, though, and she doesn’t ride the bus. (We live near a “parking” spot and have seen the occasional opened and unopened condom around. My kids don’t seem to know what they are.)
We are going to have the talk with my daughter before she goes off to 5th grade. My husband taught a class of 6th graders at church this year and he can see where things are headed and how quickly she’s going to change.
If the student had been a 15 year old, would she have been suspended? How about 17?
How about school administrators get a clue?
I am becoming more and more accustomed to stupidity from school asministrators and school boards. See WhyNot’s thread on kids having three minutes between classes and not being allowed to carry books for more than one class with them.
Didn’t school admins start their careers as teachers? Do they undergo shock treatment so they will forget everthing they ever learned about kids, as well as their common sense?
tashabot, at least when I was 9, I never knew what a condom was. I had some vague idea, but I never ever would have recognized one, same with most of my friends.
Then again this was back in the 80’s before the huge popularity of the Internet.
Even granting that 9 years old seems young to know what a condom is, suspending child for it? While I wonder why the older child gave the nine year old the condom, there are enough innocent scenarios I can imagine, that even that seems a bit harsh. WTF are these idiots using to think with? It’s sure not what I’d normally find inside the skull of H. sapiens. Maybe tapioca? Cream of Wheat? Cream of Celery soup concentrate?
Perhaps, in the interest of finding out, we can do some exploratory trepanning to find out.
When I was nine or ten (can’t quite remember, but it was about ten years ago) we had a celebratory meal and skittles evening for my class (smallish school) at the local pub one evening. At some point in the evening, me and a few of the other boys used the condom machine in the toilets and got a few packs. We sort-of knew what they were for, and got them purely because it was naughty to do so!
Anyway, the head caught one of us and took them off us but didn’t really give us a telling off. When I got home, he’d phoned our parents (Dad was chair of governors, at least I think he called everyone elses folks, hope it wasn’t just me!) and I guess he’d warned them to have ‘a chat’ with us when we got home.
Sit down talk with parents and they made sure that I knew what condoms really were and not to worry about them for a while, and that I’d not really done anything wrong, was just silly. Didn’t get in trouble whatsover, think it was the right way to handle it.
I didn’t know what a condom was until I was in the 6th grade, but that was 18 years ago, in Nebraska.
I think it is insane that the kids were suspended from school over it.
melondeca mentioned that an older student gave the 9 y.o. the condom. How much older? If it was a high schooler, it could be construed as creepy. But if it were a 10 or 11 y.o. not so much, more like kids being goofy about stuff. “he he he look what I found, you want it?” lots of giggling
I dunno. It just seems that school administrations are so far off their rockers these days.
Local girl suspended for having condom in backpack.
Area man wanted for questioning.
Seriously, though, put me in the camp of people who simply don’t want some shmuck handing their 9-year-old daughter a condom, even as a joke. Suspension? I just want to know exactly what’s going on, who knows what, and who’s doing what, if anything. Talk of suspensions comes later.
There’s not a lot of info in the OP (not blaming the OP, I recognize the desire to keep acquaintances anonymous) but do we really know that the reason for the suspension was merely the possession of the condom? If so, that seems excessive. But if as a result of the presence of the condom the girl was questioned about it and she threw a hairy conniption in the administrator’s office and was suspended for that, well, that’s another kettle of fish. Not that I’m saying that’s what happened, but simply drawing a connection between condom-suspension-administrators went overboard is a little premature.
Sounds like the kind of place where they suspend a 9 year old because they think the kid was oblivious to what a condom is. Had they caught a 17 year old, they probably would have outright expelled her. :rolleyes:
