Get Your Condoms!

It took a so-called “pregnancy pact” and nearly 20 pregnant teens, but last night Gloucester, MA’s school board voted unanimously to allow contraceptives to be distributed in the high school’s heath center. There’s only one small catch – parental consent. And let’s face it - that can be a big catch if parents aren’t too careful. I understand not wanting your children to have sex, but if teens want to have sex they’re going to no matter what their parents tell them. Maybe having condoms at school would give parents the opportunity to have the awkward sex talk at home sooner rather than later. Why the school offered pregnancy tests, but not condoms to begin with is a mystery to me. If you’re offering pregnancy testing at school that means you suspect students are having sex. If you suspect students are having sex, why wouldn’t you offer condoms to not only avoid pregnancy in the first place but HIV and STDs too? Regardless, this is great news. Let’s hope the next trend in American high schools is not more teen mothers, but lots and lots of condoms and open and honest sex education at school and home.