DISCLAIMER: The following is an editorial and does not represent Leesville Road High School’s or WCPSS’s policy. The views of this editorial are strictly those of the author.
Since we’ve been little, our parents have been teaching us about safety. We learned to look left and right while crossing the street. We learned to say no to candy from strange people in vans. Safety. Safety. Safety.
Yet, unlike looking left and right and saying no, our parents aren’t the first to speak up about safety in sex.
Sure, they’re willing to teach us about birth control and not succumbing to peer pressure, but students really need a place where they can dive deeper than the internet while learning about sex safety and education.
We might learn about sex ed in freshman gym class, but — from what I remember — we just took notes from a Power Point about birth control and condoms.
Helpful, right? No.
Students already know about what condoms are and what the Pill is. I think that a students’ school — a place they should be going everyday — should be a great resource to learn about where to get condoms, birth control and sexual knowledge.
With this, schools should give its students a chance to have safe sex by providing condoms.
Students are very aware of the consequences of having sex before the sex actually happens. They know there is a chance of getting pregnant and STI’s. However, while students are in the moment, the last thing on their mind is being safe.
That being said, being “in the moment” isn’t an excuse to having unsafe sex, but if a guy has a condom in his wallet, he’d have the chance to make a good choice in practicing safe sex.
It’s quite clear by the fact that there are so many teen pregnancies (over 300,000) that the lack of a condom in a sexual situation doesn’t matter and that kids are going to find a way to have sex.
Providing condoms in school will promote sexual responsibility. As cliche as it is, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Students shouldn’t be stuck in the situation where they want to and feel ready to have sex and don’t have a condom. Students should have somewhere they could rely on to help them be prepared for when the time comes. Like stated before, students — even if unprepared — will participate in sex if they so desire.
Most of those who don’t believe condoms should be provided to students think that condoms would be a gateway to promiscuity and sexual acts. They believe that it’s too risky to expose the children to adult products. Plus, those who object claim that there are Planned Parenthoods and other accesses to condoms and other contraceptives.
But, there are only 820 Planned Parenthood locations across the United States. Compared to the whopping 24,651 public high schools, the small number amount of Planned Parenthood’s can’t cover the sexual information and safety needs of all the students in the states.
Most importantly, not having condoms isn’t the only factor holding kids back from having sex; introducing condoms and safe sex into schools will not change everything except the fact that more students would participate in safe sex, preventing the spread of STI’s and HIV/AIDS and teen pregnancies.
With the factor of teen pregnancy and an increased growth of STI’s and HIV/AIDS, the solution of whether all schools or no schools should supply condoms is growing to be an important topic. Eventually, there must be compromise and the benefits of providing condoms in schools obviously outweighs the risks.
