Let’s face it: teens are having sex. And consequently, everyday teens become parents. In fact, according to the Resource Center for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, 47 percent of high school students were sexually active as of 2013. Of those aged 15-19 who were sexually active, around 450,000 became parents in their teens. It’s taught, talked and warned about in schools… but is enough being done to help prevent it?
Providing contraceptives to students in schools has been a controversial idea. According to Advocates for Youth, three schools acted as trials for the concept—one in Baltimore, another in St. Paul and the final in Multnomah County, Oregon. Each school discretely provided students contraceptives, and each of these case studies resulted in a common theme—STDs or pregnancies in the respective school systems were decreased. However, N.C. General Law 115C-81 states that contraceptives shall not be made available or distributed on school property.
All kinds of questions and uncertainty can arise from such a notion, but the concept could be fairly simple—take first, for example, T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, where the same issue was addressed. According to USA Today, the school system made the decision in 2010 to simply implement a teen wellness center inside of the school where students could access free contraceptives at any time. Within the first two years of implementation, the student pregnancies at the high school dropped from 50 to 20: over a 50 percent decrease. Although pregnancies at Northwood are not as prevalent as this particular school, the tactic could prove to be successful. Additionally, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement reading that “schools should be considered suitable sites for condom distribution,” according to the November 2013 issue of Pediatrics.
So, how would it work at Northwood? The editorial board of the Northwood Omniscient offers a solution: Using safe, non-tamperable condom dispensers placed in all restrooms, available to all students, free of charge. It is our belief that machines such as these could help prevent pregnancy in high school age students, even if only on a local level. The dispensers, modeled after feminine hygiene dispensers found commonly in public restrooms, would be a safe and effective way to deliver condoms to students. Simply twist the knob, and a condom would be distributed to the student. The condoms themselves would ideally come from donations from local health clinics and other sponsors, ridding the cost for students and the school system. This would eliminate the awkward face-to-face purchasing of birth control, the often infeasible trip to the health clinic and ideally, teen pregnancies.
For concerned parents who believe that free condom dispensers could normalize or even encourage sex, we hear you. School systems should educate students on the possible dangers of sex, but the fact of the matter is that kids are going to have sex anyway. The Northwood Omniscient recognizes this, and we would like to make sure that all students are making safe and responsible decisions. According to the Guttmacher Institute, around 85 percent of couples who do not use birth control methods over the course of one year will experience a pregnancy. With almost half of all high school students participating in sexual intercourse, it’s easy to say this is a situation teachers, students and parents alike should not take lightly—and it is most certainly better to be safe than sorry.
