It seems news of schools handing out sexual protective devices has been in the headlines a lot as of late. Call me naive, but I’d just the facts. When did our schools get into the sex counciling business? (I didn’t think sex ed had labs with hands-on lessons!) And, when did “they” decide it was ok to leave the parents out of the loop whenever it concerns minors?
For the record, my school nurse couldn’t even administer aspirin without fear of a law suit; yet, I hear some schools have professionals on staff who can write prescriptions? WTF?
Just looking for the facts as to how we reached this point, and not a debate.
It derives from the charter schools have to teach children things they will need as adults and citizens, and reflects further the opportunity schools seem to present to carry out other public good works like feeding children who don’t eat well enough at home.
From a public health sort of perspective, it’s the easiest way to reach a group of people at a high risk for certain diseases or other problems (such as teen pregnancy). There are certainly a lot of kids out there that wouldn’t get this information otherwise.
Of course, equating STD prevention through safer sex with, say, flu prevention through better hygiene rapidly crosses into GD territory.
It is the responsiblity of public schools to teach students how to avoid clear and present public health hazards. The schools got into the sex ed business decades ago. (No, they don’t have labs with hands-on lessons.)
The schools have always begged parents to be involved in their children’s education. Forty years ago, you might have forgiven parents for believing that their sons and daughters didn’t need to learn about sex and condoms until they were eighteen. (It was foolish, even then.) In the 21st century, we like to think parents are wiser. Some aren’t, though. Some believe that their innocent children will not experience lust, and if they do, they’ll abstain from pleasure. :smack:
Yes, public schools need to teach kids about sex and birth control/disease control, because some parents are afraid to teach them at home.
Now, please, gentle Jinx, don’t drag out that tired meme about aspirin from the school nurse. Would you rather have your child come home with a headache, or with a pregnancy? How about Gonorrhea? Do you think kids don’t get HIV? They might be embarrassed to ask Mom for a condom. They might be embarrassed to death.
Schools have slowly taken over many roles that used to be entrusted to parents: Driver’s Education, for one, Home Economics and Shop, Household Economics (which often includes things like how to balance a checkbook, how to make investments and how interest rates work) even providing school funded breakfasts and lunches… As educators see a void in their students’ education or needs, they generally want to fill that. Or as communities notice that individual families aren’t doing the jobs they once did, we empower our schools to take over for us by requesting additional programs and providing the funds for them. Often, these topics are brought up at school board meetings which are open to the general public, or they are suggested to the administration via private correspondence from parents or community leaders or as course proposals by teachers.
I have no idea what you mean by “leave the parents out of the loop”, however. Could you be more explicit about that claim and where you came by it?
I do, however, think it ridiculous that the school nurse can’t give my kid a Tylenol without a signed note from a doctor, but she can give him condoms without a note from anyone. I think it’s ridiculous on the Tylenol end of things, though. I think the Tylenol should be as readily available as the condoms.
My class got a condom usage demonstration and access to the little guys and this was 1992. It wasn’t new then either and from what I understand it was standard 7th-grade Health class stuff for at least five years before that.
That’s odd, because this is the opposite of what I usually hear from people talking about when they were younger. “The school nurse had Tylenol and Aspirin and gave it to anyone who asked for them, and for school trips they always made us peanut butter sandwiches, and no one ever got sick. Today, you can’t even bring peanut butter to school for fear someone will die, and their parents will sue. WTF?”
Mmm. They taught us boys about joining the National Forest Service as rangers that day. I always wondered why they though it was worth making a special class out of that.
Then you weren’t the boy who sat across from me who somehow got hold of the permission slip, which included the word “menstruation.” He looked it up in the dictionary and teased all of us about it, but he still didn’t understand what it meant!!
Well that’s enlightened! Boys have to know what it is, too! But in 1965, it was a big secret. Only the girls got permission slips to see the movie, and all the boys went crazy trying to find out what it was all about. All the teacher would tell them was that it was just for girls!
Ooh, you’re right. It’s too bad they don’t make his doctors and me fill out and sign medical forms detailing all known allergies in triplicate every school year. Oh wait, they do.
And latex allergy can cause anaphylaxis, not just dermatitis.
ETA: Dammit, I know “my doctors and me” is grammatically correct, but it still *looks *wrong!
