Boston Metro reports the School Committee voted unanimously tonight to make free condoms available to all BPS high-school students "as long as they sit through a few minutes of counseling about safe sex."
Students at 19 high schools with on-site health centers were already able to obtain condoms; the vote extends distribution to the rest of the city's 32 public high schools.
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The "few minutes of
By Andrew
Wed, 06/19/2013 - 10:06pm
The "few minutes of counseling" is just something for administrators to check off. It was added to get to appease voters. No one takes it seriously.
Seems reasonable to me.
By Rhett Thanas
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 8:58am
It's an opportunity for a student to ask questions in a safe, private setting.
I imagine plenty of students will roll their eyes and ignore the whole thing. But if just one kid asks a question meaningful to their health then it is worth it.
An aside, I wonder if BPS still blocks ScarletTeen.com.
This is 2013
By anon
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 9:47am
we have this fantastic thing called the internet. Great for asking questions in private.
The internet, where
By brianjdamico
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 10:48am
The internet, where everything written is true and there is never any false information floating around for someone to be mislead by, right?
So in the next few weeks when
By -_-
Wed, 06/19/2013 - 10:10pm
So in the next few weeks when the city is littered with balloon animals from an unintended use of this policy can we get an epic Citizens Connect Report thread?
That just begs the question -
By anon
Wed, 06/19/2013 - 10:14pm
That just begs the question - can all of them get "free" schoolbooks?
- tutoring?
- a healthy meal at least once a day?
- safe schools?
- real intercessory safety nets for the ones at high risk?
- something less than a 105-minute, three-bus daily commute each way?
No
By BTU administrat...
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 10:33am
No
They should make you sit
By anon
Wed, 06/19/2013 - 10:20pm
They should make you sit through the counseling if you DON'T take a condom.
Not every high school kid needs a condom
By Nancy
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 6:41am
I know this is hard to believe what with "kids today" and all that but not every high school student is sexually active. Some kids actually wait until college or marriage (I know - a strange concept here in Boston) or just feel like waiting until they're older.
I'm for availability of condoms but let's allow kids to make their own decisions about their sexuality and whether or not they want to act on it in high school.
/end old person rant
A strange concept here in Boston?
By Sally
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 8:28am
I'm sorry, but where are these mythical lands where teenagers do not have sex? Because last time I checked, our teen pregnancy rates were actually, uh...way lower than all those states where they pride themselves on their good old-fashioned values and hand out promise rings like they're Tic Tacs.
Rates
By RhoninFire
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 10:05am
She didn't claimed that a land where teenagers do have no sex unless I'm reading it wrong. She seems to be saying there remain a significant portion who didn't start to engage until at least after high school. It was said in a snarky tone though.
Also, lower teen pregnancy rates could be interpreted in two ways. perhaps the promise rings people have more people not engaging early, but those who do have less of them using condoms. Thus more get pregnant despite less are actually engaging. Or both have rough same rates of engaging in sexual activity, which Massachusetts uses protection more.
Both sounds like reasonable postulations.
Actually
By anon
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 10:30am
Kids with abstinence only indoctrination have sex at younger ages and don't have protected sex.
Kids with reality-based sex education wait because they understand the consequences and know they should be prepared.
I don't know if my kids are having sex yet or not. I do give them free access to protection and make it abundantly clear that they have NO EXCUSES for not using it!
There are a few
By eeka
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 4:47pm
But 70% of people have engaged in sexual activity by age 19. It's higher in lower SES groups, which BPS skews toward. So, yeah, fine if some kids don't need condoms/dams, but most of them do.
some facts. attagirl.
By anon
Fri, 06/21/2013 - 8:50am
some facts. attagirl.
I'd rather see kids have access to and use condoms
By anon
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 8:46pm
I'd rather that my taxes paid for kids to have access to condoms and other forms of birth control than to have my taxes continuing to subsidize teenaged pregnancies, which, btw, I don't like seeing my taxes foot the bill for any more than I like seeing my taxes foot the bill for our government's stupid, wrongheaded and illegal military escapades into Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.
Ahh.. let me prepare myself
By anon
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 12:12am
Ahh.. let me prepare myself for a bunch of comments from people who don't have kids, teach kids or are even a janitor...
airplane bathrooms
By anon
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 1:27am
Airlines tell you not to smoke on a plane about 100 different ways. There are no smoking signs above every seat and they warn you that there are bathroom smoke detectors and that tampering with them is a federal offense. Yet every single airplane bathroom also has an ashtray. If you're going to be dumb enough to smoke on an airplane, we want to make damn sure that you don't start a fire. Nobody ever says that having an ashtray is going to encourage people to smoke.
Passenger planes have
By anon
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 1:02pm
Passenger planes have ashtrays not because "people will ignore the no-smoking laws anyway so this is safer". They have them because (a) smoking wasn't banned (to the same degree) when the plane was built or (b) there might still be markets where smoking is not banned.
On carriers flying US routes, the ashtrays are usually sealed in some manner.
ashtrays
By anon
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 2:48pm
Federal regulations state:
Quoted from: http://www.standalone-sysadmin.com/blog/2012/05/en...
The strategy... B4 sex get tested 2GETHER 4 A VARIETY of STDs...
By theszak
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 7:46am
The strategy... BEFORE sex get tested TOGETHER for A VARIETY of STDs then make an INFORMED decision.
google... "tested together"
... but be prepared
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 06/20/2013 - 7:47am
Just in case the rational romanticism of "wait for me" doesn't work out after that fifth shot.
What does that mean?...
By theszak
Fri, 06/21/2013 - 9:49pm
> ... but be prepared
> Just in case the rational romanticism of "wait for me"
> doesn't work out after that fifth shot.
What does that mean?...
I've been wondering the same
By BostonUrbEx
Sat, 06/22/2013 - 10:47am
I don't understand.
Random sex happens
By SwirlyGrrl
Sat, 06/22/2013 - 11:40am
That's what it means.
So keep some condoms around for those times when random sex happens - you can always share with that drunk friend who is hooking up if you are going home alone for the night.
I work in public health and, while I think the "get tested before sex" has a lot of rational - and romantic - merit, it isn't practical for many members of the population. Some people are couplers - they form couples and proceed slowly and value relationships. Some people are not, and others go through phases of both.
If you engage the narrative of the Bristol Palin "unwed mother" types, there is always the allegiance to the higher ideal of abstinence, but somehow that dissolves after five or ten shots of booze or a six pack ... noble intentions (be they abstinence until marriage or get tested together first) are not a practical way to prevent STDs or pregnancy in the entire population.
Humans are like that. They get drunk and have sex. They are less likely to have unprotected sex if they don't labor under the belief that they have pledged to self control.
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