Hey Public Schools:  Just Say No

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2019/07/08/hey-public-schools-just-say-no/

What would happen if public schools told their students don’t have sex because it isn’t good for you and you can’t handle it?

We may never know, because it’s the road not travelled.

Instead, schools tell their kids that boys-and-girls-will-be-boys-and-girls and here’s a condom for your trouble.

And nowadays, some of them in eastern Massachusetts are handing out various types of contraceptives right in the school, as New Boston Post reported recently.

Ostensibly, the idea is to prevent teen pregnancy. Somehow, some “advocates” are also mentioning sexually transmitted diseases as a reason – as if oral contraceptives or intrauterine devices fight chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis.

Nonsense.

But let’s zero in on teen pregnancy.

The most popular form of contraceptive is The Pill. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the failure rate for The Pill is 7 percent.

If that seems low, think about it this way:  7 percent is about 1 in 14. If a high school girl and her boyfriend have sex twice a week for seven weeks, that’s 14 times. That means, statistically speaking, one of those instances may well result in pregnancy – during a sexual relationship lasting less than two months.

What are the chances that making The Pill available in school will hasten a sexual relationship with a romantic partner?

Hey honey, you got no excuses anymore. Time to get with me.

That leads to the most basic problem:  Sexual intercourse between two young people who aren’t in a committed lifelong relationship is a disaster whether or not it results in pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease. The emotional and spiritual effects of sex are not containable. They alter people for the better or for the worse. In the case of unmarried teen-agers, it’s for the worse. It teaches them to use other people for their own short-term pleasure, and it often leads to alienation and other psychological problems down the road.

Why would you sentence children in your care to that?

Now:  Some teen-agers will engage in sex no matter what anybody else tells them. But do teachers and school administrators think they have no effect on any students?

That doesn’t seem to be their approach when it comes reading, writing, and diversity.