Posted by Condom Depot on 05/16/2005
East High School junior Cary Shapiro keeps a condom in his wallet even though he says he's never had sex. He picked it up at a concert.
Shapiro is among students who say it's time for Denver Public Schools to make prophylactics available to all high school students who want them.
By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News
May 16, 2005
East High School junior Cary Shapiro keeps a condom in his wallet even though he says he's never had sex. He picked it up at a concert.
Shapiro is among students who say it's time for Denver Public Schools to make prophylactics available to all high school students who want them.
"I think it's a great idea," Shapiro said. "I think the argument that this will encourage sex is really dumb. I didn't say, 'I really want to have sex now that I have a condom.' "
Denver Public Schools is about to engage in a debate over whether educators should pass out condoms, a prospect that is sure to bring up issues such as safe sex, abstinence and morality. Students are making their views known as the district begins reviewing its 35-year-old policy on family life and sex education. The goal is to have recommendations for a new policy by the fall. Condom distribution will be among the issues on the table.
A similar discussion sparked by students is unfolding in the Boulder Valley School District.
A DPS school board directive from the late 1980s bans any contraceptive from being made available to students at school health clinics.
In fact, most metro-area school districts don't allow condom distribution. Commerce City schools provide condoms to pre-screened students as part of a policy focusing on AIDS prevention, said Adams County School District 14 spokeswoman Joan Hill.
A 2003 study by George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services found that teens at high schools where condoms were available were no more likely to have sex than other teens.
It also found that students in high schools with condom programs were more likely to use condoms, while students in high schools without condom programs were more likely to use other forms of birth control.
The study found no difference in pregnancy rates in schools with or without condoms.
Opposition to such a proposal would undoubtedly be vocal.
"We support abstinence-until- marriage education because it it is the highest possible standard," said Linda Klepacki, analyst for sexual health for the Colorado Springs- based Focus on the Family. "Condom distribution would not be within our concept of good health education in public schools."
Klepacki said that school districts should frown upon promiscuity the same way they frown upon guns, knives and poor nutrition.
"We believe we should have zero tolerance for sexual behavior being taught in schools," Klepacki said.
East High parent Nancy Kennedy agrees that condoms at school are a bad idea, even though she supports their use among sexually active teens.
"To me that implies permission to have sex at school, and I think handing out condoms is not a substitute for education," Kennedy said.
East High parent Kathleen Butler said she's OK with condoms at school, but wonders whether students would take the program seriously.
"They might take condoms, fill them full of water and throw them at each other," Butler said.
The timing of the conversation in DPS is tied to a partnership with the city to improve programs for pregnant and parenting teens, work being done by a district commission on physical education and nutrition, and a federal mandate for all districts to adopt wellness policies by 2006.
"Our parents ultimately will have a great deal of input in whatever recommended changes come out of this," said Donna Shocks, DPS manager of nursing services.
Currently, 6 percent of visits to the Denver district's 12 middle and high school health clinics are for reproductive health services, including pregnancy tests, help finding contraception, and screenings for sexually transmitted diseases, said Paul Melinkovich, director of the school-based health centers run in partnership with Denver Health Medical Center.
Sex education in DPS is primarily addressed through the science curriculum. State law requires that parents sign off on all discussions regarding human sexuality and reproduction.
At a recent sex-ed class, the presentation by East High nurse Lee Thomas included a large, plastic bag filled with condoms for men and women, a Power Point presentation detailing the reproductive organs and two models of male genitalia.
Thomas said the majority of parents allow their students to attend her sessions.
"There are a few parents who don't want their kids to know," Thomas said. "I don't know why."
John Stanesco, 17, a senior at Denver School of the Arts, said schools should help teens "carry out their hormones" in the safest way possible.
"Sexuality within teenagers is something that is going to happen, no matter what kind of bureaucracy is in place," he said.
Teenagers and sex, by the numbers
? A 2003 survey of 757 Colorado high school students found that 39.1 percent of students in ninth through 12th grades reported having had intercourse.
? Nearly 5 percent of the students surveyed reported that they had been pregnant or gotten someone else pregnant, according to the 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
? Some 12,000 teens become pregnant each year in Colorado and nearly a quarter of those end in abortion, according to Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.
? And, young people ages 15 to 23 are at the greatest risk for many sexually transmitted diseases, including chlamydia and gonorrhea, which are on the rise nationally, according to Planned Parenthood. Half of all new HIV infections in the U.S. are in people 25 and under.
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