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Pressley: Not giving teens tools to deal with sex would be cowardly
By adamg on Tue, 02/15/2011 - 3:53pm
At-large City Councilor Ayanna Pressley today called for a comprehensive sex-education program and for easier availability of condoms in Boston schools.
"Not taking action, now that would be controversial. It would also be cowardly and counter to what I believe the role of government is - to solve problems and make people's lives better," she said at a hearing.
Pressley said she was not advocating teaching young people how to have sex. "Our young people already know how to have sex," she said. She said she would want any program to include discussions of abstinence. "I wish our young people would wait as long as possible to become sexually active, wait until they're older, more emotionally mature, better prepared to deal with the consequences and in a healthy, safe and exclusive relationship with a loving partner. But a solution based on wishing our young people would wait to have sex and doing nothing else is no solution at all." [Pressley's complete opening statement]
Dr. Barbara Ferrer, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission, said 54% of Boston students are sexually active, and that of those 55% report having three or more partners, that 30% of sexually active students do not use condoms. The result, she said, is Boston has seen a 74% increase in chlamydia over the past ten years.
Ferrer said nine of the city's eleven public high schools now have health centers at which students can obtain condoms - but only if their parents have first registered them for overall services at those centers.
Two members of a pro-chastity group called Pure at Heart - a Harvard student and Deborah O'Hara-Rusckowski, a lecturer at Northeastnern's nursing school, said "throwing condoms" at kids would do nothing to lower STI rates, that condoms are not 100% effective at preventing AIDS.
Pressley countered that seat belts don't prevent 100% of deaths in car crashes, but people are still urged to wear them. City Councilor Mike Ross said he is "very concerned" that, given that some students are going to have sex no matter what teachers tell them, the group is proposing taking away the one protection those students would have.
C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League, said condom distribution would violate the separation of church and state by forcing Catholic students to disregard the teachings of their church and by forcing school nurses - and taxpayers - to do something they are morally opposed to. He also claimed the current health centers were paid for by slashing music and art programs and said that instead of handing out condoms, the schools should spend money teaching abstinence and the importance of "the traditional two-parent family."
Pressley said, however, that ignores the added costs of ignorance in the form of treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and violence and for caring for pregnant teens and their children.
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Comments
Bravo
Ms. Pressley. Finally a voice of reason!
Newsflash
TEENS HAVE SEX!
Teens that don't know about sex have more sex, more often, when less sober, and without protection from pregnancy and STDs.
Teens that do know put sex off longer and take precautions.
If these kids lack the maturity...
... and/or ingenuity it takes to scrape together the- what?- 50 cents or a dollar or whatever to buy a condom from a vending machine then they probably shouldn't be having sex.
If they want to have sex, that's their business. Providing them w/ condoms on the taxpayer's dime makes it mine. I don't want my tax dollars to fund their sexual escapades. With rights come responsibilities; if they want the adult right to have sex they should be expected to engage in the adult responsibility of protecting against unintended pregnancy, STDs, etc...
Not everyone is as mature as
Not everyone is as mature as you must have been at that age to buy condoms before having sex. I would rather my money go to condoms than unplanned pregnancies and the lives that sometimes are created from that.
Taxes
Wouldn't unwanted pregnancies (or STDs) for those that cannot afford the associated costs produce a far greater tax burden than a few free condoms that might prevent them?
If these kids lack the
This is like saying "If someone doesn't have the maturity/ingenuity to learn how to drive, they probably shouldn't be driving." True enough, but we don't want (more) clueless and dangerous people driving around putting the rest of us at risk, so rather than just let everyone figure it out for themselves by slipping behind the wheel and giving it a go, we offer driver's ed and have driving instructors.
If we don't take the time/effort to teach a 16 year old from a poor or working class family how important it is to have safe sex, and avoid pregnancy, just who do you think ends up paying for her child care/STD treatment? Um, that would be you and me and the rest of the taxpayers - and it'll be a hell of a lot more expensive than that 50 cent condom and a sex ed instructor!
Whose economy takes the hit when so many young people get derailed from academics/training into low/dead-end jobs or welfare in order to support babies they weren't economically or emotionally prepared for? Why sir, that would be your economy and mine! And do you think those kids of kids are more likely to grow up to be taxpayers, or tax burdens?
Teaching young humans how to take care of themselves and make responsible choices, and providing the tools they need to do so is a central part of being a civilized society.
Sex instructors to let them "give it a go?!"
""If someone doesn't have the maturity/ingenuity to learn how to drive, they probably shouldn't be driving." True enough, but we don't want (more) clueless and dangerous people driving around putting the rest of us at risk, so rather than just let everyone figure it out for themselves by slipping behind the wheel and giving it a go, we offer driver's ed and have driving instructors."
But we don't give hire them "instructors" to let them "give it a go" for sex, do we? We don't give them a car, do we, just because they "want" to drive, because their classmates may be driving, because some classmates may have bought a car of their own, etc... do we?
"If we don't take the time/effort to teach a 16 year old from a poor or working class family how important it is to have safe sex, and avoid pregnancy, just who do you think ends up paying for her child care/STD treatment?"
They're not being taught that now?! They haven't been taught that for the last few decades? Has sex changed in the last 5, 10, 15, 20 years? I remember being taught that when I was in high school over 20 years ago. (And what diff does it make if the kid is from a "poor or working class family" or from a middle class or wealthy family?)
With rights come responsibilites. If these kids want the "right" to engage in sex let them accept some modicum of the responsibility as well. Purchasing a condom isn't a lot to ask, or expect.
Why does this have to be pointed out?
People aren't born with a car between their legs. If you don't give them the keys, they can't drive, and the cost of obtaining a vehicle is high enough to turn away the non-serious.
However, people are (by-and-large) born to eventually develop into a sexual individual, no additional equipment necessary!
Not only that, people are instinctively driven to use that functionality.
So to grumble and moan about how "we don't give cars to just anyone" is to really entirely miss the point.
I agree
I agree with RJ, but it's not about the money for me. It's the mixed message. Tell them that abstinence is best, that waiting is good, then hand out free condoms (wink, wink). I have nothing against explicit, detailed sex education. I don't care if they even graphically demonstrate how to put a condom on. But giving them out in a public school just doesn't seem right to me. If they decide to have sex let them walk to CVS and buy their own.
I see nothing wrong with parents such as Swirley deciding to provide protection to her own kids, but it is not the role of a public school.
As a parent of two teen boys ...
I keep condoms available in the "don't ask, don't tell" jar.
Other parents I know do similar things - like make sure their boys are so equipped before dates and trips.
Some people are scandalized by this, but the reality is that they have the parts, the drive, and the function - they need the knowledge and the supplies to keep it safe.
Besides - I'm the parent. Isn't that what all the idiots who were pushing the "just lie and lie and lie to them and tell them to be pure" approach that sent STD and pregnancy rates back up after decades of decline wanted? Parental responsibility?
As my mother used to say "if you can't be good BE SANITARY!".
As the mother of 2 much
As the mother of 2 much littler boys, I am cutting and pasting your message to pop up on my email in 5 years!! Love the don't ask, don't tell...
Sex education is necessary...give out the condoms...teach teens how to be responsible citizens.
IMHO - I don't care who teaches them as long as they learn it...
+1
We've butted heads on issues before, but parenting won't be one of them. That jar represents the kind of trust great families are made of. You don't need anyone's validation, but very good job.
If these kids lack the
You are, of course 100% correct here. Too bad that not having a condom doesn't prevent kids from having sex 100% of the time. You somehow expect these kids to have the maturity to not engage in sex simply because they don't have a condom?
Time to join the rest of us in reality. Unless you want to be supporting the results of unprotected sex, I suggest you be willing to cough up a few pennies of your tax dollars to help encourage kids to make the right decisions.
"B4 we have sex let's get tested 2GETHER for A VARIETY of STDs."
How widespread is the strategy?... of
"BEFORE we have sex let's get tested TOGETHER
for A VARIETY of STDs."
Do sexual health checkups reduce the ambiguity?...
Can sexual health checkups be like anything else POTENTIAL sex
partners do together?...
If you needed surgery would you want the surgeon to wash
before operating?...
If you needed a blood transfusion would you want the blood tested
before or after the transfusion?...
see also
http://notb4weknow.blogspot.com
http://continuedat.blogspot.com
"tested together" alerts
http://www.google.com/alerts
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22tested+together%22
Religious people hate freedom
Gotta love the Cathaholics trotting out this bullshit argument. Other people distributing condoms and providing sex education is "violating" their first amendment rights.
So let me get this straight: Cathaholics DEMAND that the state take away other people's religious freedom, or else the state is infringing on the Cathaholics religious freedom?
This coming from child rapists? Tell me again why every single fucking member of the cathaholic clergy is not in prison right now for aiding and abetting child rape? Why do we tolerate this criminal behavior from them?
Attacks on UU Religious Freedom
My kids attended the Our Whole Lives program from the Unitarian Universalist church - which emphasizes role playing, sexual ethics, and FACTS, inclusive of gay relationships.
This program is under constant attack by the right wing, which has attempted to get the slides used for education declared to be "porn" because some of them feature line drawings of gay couples, mixed race couples, older couples getting busy to illustrate the variety of sexual experience.
Here is one of those
Here is one of those 'educational' slides. Disgusting.
http://fun.flipsta.com/dancestick.gif
My eyes! My eyes!
My eyes! My eyes!
Parental Nods
...which is why OWL programs get the parents to sign on (literally) to the course after discussing the contents and showing them the illustrations. By the bye, the line art is much less porn-y looking than the photos they used to use.
OWL is a great program that prepared my three wisely, kindly and with humor. They don't buy into any BS about sex from kids or anyone. They know better.
The consensus of other parents I have heard is that they sure wish they it was available when they were teens.
Hooray for OWL!!!
Hooray for OWL!!!
Simple Answer To A Simple Question
"Tell me again why every single fucking member of the cathaholic clergy is not in prison right now for aiding and abetting child rape?"
Simple answer to a simple question: Not every Catholic priest aided and abetted child rape.
People - of whatever race, religion, or other identifier - are just people, and prone to not being perfect. That includes the many thousands of Catholic clergymen, and women, who remained utterly unaware of the odious practices being perpetrated by some within their community. To tar every good and humane priest along with the filth is not only amazingly disrespectful, but completely juvenile.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Where's the accountability?
The cover-up of the crimes was conducted at high-levels in this criminal organization, up to and including the current and past popes.
Stop making excuses for child rapists.
Better Yet
I'll stop giving answers to questions asked by people who don't want to hear the answers.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Students speak
WBUR quotes some of the students who testified at the hearing.
NNN too
And Chris Lovett runs good video on the hearing and youth.
condoms
I am amazed at how much sense this woman, ayanna pressley makes.
I am so used to politicians talking absolute bullshit that it amazes me to hear her speak with so much sense.
I especially liked her comment that no we are not teaching our youngsters how to have sex, our young people already know how to have sex. Its not like sex is a something you have to study to engage in, it comes quite naturally
I too feel uneasy about very young teens having sex and the pressure on kids, but it sounds like without the condoms, kids will have sex anyways but do it unsafely.
I do think that it has to be more than just giving out condoms.
I totlly disagree with the catholics. No one is forcing catholic kids to use condoms, and this is a secular society. It is not fair to say that nurses should not have to give out condoms. These are public schools. You cannot expect secular society to conform to your version of religious law.