Friday, December 18, 2009

MPS Condom Distribution Program Is Common Sense

Milwaukee Public Schools, with the unanimous vote of an elected board, is doing the right thing by creating a program of limited condom distribution, under controlled circumstances. It will help combat teen pregnancy and prevent STD transmission.

Talk radio has been blasting the idea for days, and callers were weighing in with tales from earlier eras when, allegedly, teens didn't get pregnant.

Oh, really?

I know people from earlier generations who had to get married as teens, or others whose parents had to get married because of unwanted pregnancies.

And, yes, the rates of out-of-wedlock births have skyrocketed in recent years, so why not have school nurses distribute condoms?

3 comments:

The Sconz said...

James, you obviously aren't old enough to remember the times when rape and sexual harassment didn't exist, either.

James Rowen said...

I do not understand this comment.

Are you suggesting that condom distribution by school nurses will lead to rape and sexual harrassment?

Jim Bouman said...

I suspect that the common impression of this policy is that of readers of the daily papers assuming that the MPS school nurses will simply be providing a punchbowl of rainbow-hued prophylactics at each of the exits of MPS high schools and middle schools.

The health staff of the schools encounter conflicted and disoriented teens every day, adrift in a world of sexual attraction and innuendo. They see young people adrift in a sea of pressures to conform and submit, posture and perform.

And, they are the same "...crazy mixed-up kids" we were fifty years ago, albeit under a great deal more stimulation and modeling of hypersexual lifestyle offered up on the media.

The availability of clear adult guidance to be cautious, to be wary of a heedless approach to sexuality modeled by so much media and many of their friends, can only help those teens who want time to grow up.

I'm all for nursing staff of the schools giving condoms to young men--and especially young women-- to help them have a modicum of control over the consequences of teenage sexuality.