29 OCT 07 / "Contraceptives for Pre-Teens"

The Portland School Committee in Maine voted 7 to 2 earlier this month to provide a full complement of contraceptives to all students at the King Middle School. Children as young as 11 will now have access to contraceptives without parental consent. If there ever was a case for home schooling, it is this.

After outraged parents protested, the school committee revised the policy to include only those children whose parents consented, but since state law stipulates that contraceptive 'treatment' must be kept confidential, any student can obtain contraceptives. The school committee is usurping the rights of parents to supervise the sexual lives of their pre-teen children.

The school committee decision is symptomatic of the pornification of our culture. It typifies a society in which children are being exposed to adult themes at a very early age, especially on television and in music. We have experienced a marked decline in values and further cultural degradation is likely. 'It's all relative' and 'anything goes' are credos that reign supreme. Ironically, our kids are growing up too quickly in terms of their ability to have sex but not in their ability to take care of themselves by learning skills that are valued in our economy. The only question is how bad can it get?

America's public system of education remains in crisis. Parents mistakenly trust teachers and school administrators to know what's right for their children. When schools violate this trust, the only recourse for parents is to seek alternative methods of educating their children such as private or home schooling.

Contraceptives being made available to kids by a school system signals that it is acceptable to have sex at the age of 11. When 20 year-olds aren't making mature decisions about their sexual activity, how can we expect our 11 year-olds to do so?

The school administrators who support the contraceptives measure no doubt believe that it will reduce the number of teen pregnancies, but it's obvious that in sending the wrong message about sex it will have just the opposite effect. The fact that the administrators don't realize is troubling.