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  • Title: Why schools should make condoms available to teenagers.
    Author: Singer A.
    Journal: Educ Leadersh; 1994 Oct; 52(2):78-9. PubMed ID: 12287913.
    Abstract:
    The controversy surrounding sex education and condom availability programs in schools in New York City and throughout the US continues because parents worry that such programs encourage teenagers to engage in sexual behavior. But the reality is that more and more teenagers are engaging in sexual behavior anyway. The Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development found the 17% of girls and 29% of boys engaged in sexual intercourse by the time they were 16 years old. Many parents are ready to blame sex education and condom availability programs for these figures; these parents issue calls for "chastity education." Opponents of sex education also believe that these programs violate the rights of parents to education their children about moral behavior and religious values. But the truth is that these programs do not preclude the right of a parents to teach a child anything. They simply prevent the use of the public schools to impose religious beliefs on students. Those who argue that the mandate of schools is only to teach academic subjects forget that public high schools are the best place for sex education and condom availability programs because the schools are full of teenagers and of adults who are trained and willing to counsel them. Few educators would argue that schools should not teach values, and sex education and condom availability programs provide an excellent way to help teenagers understand not only human sexuality, reproduction, and the spread of disease but also social relationships, the development of cultural norms, and the role of responsible citizens. At the same time that we encourage sexual abstinence among young people, we must also teach about sexual responsibility. Sexual responsibility today means using a condom to prevent pregnancy and disease. If teenagers are embarrassed in their efforts to acquire condoms, pregnancy and diseases will be the result, not abstinence.
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