Newspapers / Meredith College Student Newspaper / April 21, 1993, edition 1 / Page 3
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page three April 21,19^ Campus Editorial Counterpoint Point Students debate distribution of condoms in public schools Over forty million Americans are infected with one or more of the conmion. sexually transmitted(Useases(STD).’niese are chlamyti a,gononhea, herpes, syi^uhs and genital warts. Over one million Americans have tested positive for HIV, and as of December 1992,253,448 Americans were living with fiill blown AIDS. In 1991, 14,441 women had alxMtions, and eighty-seven percent of these women were not married I do not waiA to preach to you about premarital sex or about STDs. I want to tell you how you can jwactice safer sex. Coming from a community where it is not uncommon for sixth and seventh graders to be pregnant, some for the second time, and knowing friends who have had back alley abcwtions, 1 have become dedicated to the cause of free condoms being available in sdiools. 1 believe that you will see that condoms should be di^>ensed not only in high schools but also at Meredidi College. Cost, convenience, and {vo- tection are three important reasons for making condoms available to students. I know that some of you think dispens ing free condoms at schools (vomotes sex. I am not|xt>moting sex. Abstinence is the safest sex. Unfortunately, mil* lions of young adults have sex every year without prt^ection. My first point why latex condoms should be distributed on campuses is (X)St. If we want young adults to use condoms, we have to make them a^ordable. The twenty-five cents insurance plan that was popular when my parents were teenagers has inflated Today a box of thiw generic latex condoms cost approximately $2.50. The price of latex condoms increases with size, odor, lubrication and texture. CcMvenience is another reason that free cond(Mns should be available to students. Condoms have a reputation of being easy to get, easy to carry and easy to use. Many students are embarrassed to go to the drugs^re, supennar- ket,« even the health department to purchase or pick up a latex condom. TherefMe, we should make condoms even easier to get by putting them at everyone’s fingertips. Having free condoms available in ^signated places lna^ftg it easier fw students to be protected. Here at Meredith free latex condoms could be easily and discretely located in the health department where students could pick one up when walking by. Protection is my final and most important reason. I strongly fwomote dispensing free latex condoms in schools. Smdents, e^cially college students, ne^ to become more responsible for their actions. Teenage pregnancy is on a rise. Babies are having babies. But what is more important is that the number of reported cases of women between the ages of sixteen and thirty-five are contracting AIDS is increasing. 1 urge you to t^otect yourself One wrong partner, and your life will be dramatically changed. If Meredith College would dispense free condoms to students, 1 believe that more women would take the responsibility to protect themselves. Hease, I cannot stress to you enough the importance of the latex condom. TTie number of AIDS infected teenagers doubles every month. There are more than thirty different STDs out there, and one out of four Americans between the ages of fifteen and fifty-five will contract one. I would like to leave you with a few more facts. If Meredith College and other schools would aUow the di^nsing of free latex condoms, I know many students would take advantage of this service. Cost convenience, and protection make the need for free dispensing of condoms at schools neces sary. The latex condom is 97% effective wlien used correcfly and over 99% effective when used with a spermicide. Usii^ a condom does not only prevent birth it also prevents DEATH. Catherine Angela Pridgen Walker Sophomore Freshman Elementary Biology major Education Today, there are many new issues that arise, issues that effect adults and (diildren alike. One such issue concerns the distribution of condoms in tte middle and high schools across the country. Even a new term has been introduced. Ihis word is “educational maI(M^ctice.’* Germaine Wensley, for flte California Nurses for ^hical Standards, says that the school systm is “(TC^ng over the fine line from educator to advocate. ” Hie sdiool system is deceiving students by coiKkining sexual activity. Condoms diould not be di^buted in middle or high schools because they give a f^se sense of security and undermine the essential audiority of the parents. Today in the United States,7,742teenagers become sexually active eachday. Each year one million teenagers between fifteen and nineteen become sexually active and under die age of fourteen the number is 30,000. Ihere is no doidM th^ teenagers are having sex. Now the only thing to do is to figure out how to address the proMem. For an inaeasing number of schools the answ^ has been condom disfribu- tion. Many administn^rs believe that [R'omoting chasdty is unrealistic. But today students are fricing much more than {wegnancy and venereal diseases; they are fricing the tlffeat of death. The reality is that the average failure rate of a condom has been found in many studies to be between 18 and 20%. Ihis means that one in five a(ioie??ynts condoms face die threat of death each time he or ^ has “safe sex.” The Food and Drug Administration says th^ ttte best that a condom can do is ‘^isk reduction.” So w^y in diis decade when adults are dianging dieir sexual hfestyles, are the schools teacMng adolescents that condoms will keep dtem safe? Ihe distribution of condoms is not the answer to teenage pregnaicy, abortion or AIDS. Hie condom policy isnotthesameasavaccimtionthatcanbetaken care of and forgotten about. A school system cannot make sure that each teenager is using a condom during sexual intercourse. Statistics ^w that only 45% of sexually active students use condoms, while Mie million are thnught to be infected with the AIDS virus. Something must be done befcve the future adults of America have no future. The education^ system is also leaving out the parents that are esseittial to education today. In New York, officials believe that parents should have no part in the issue. Avoiding parents and covering up the dilemma by handing out potection promotes the family breakdown and ignores the poverty that contrib utes to this behavior. Clu^l Hill High School is now going tlrou^ meetings to decide whether or not to distribute condoms, and many parents are asking the school not to override their parental authority. There are no easy solutions to this fwoblem, but there are alternatives. One alternative is to promote abstinence through educatioa This does not solve all the problems, but it is changing many young people’s lives. Tliese programs do not eliminate discussion ^ut birth control or condoms, but what they do differently is to try to change the students’ attitude to sex and abstinence. They teach that die only real “safe sex” is no sex. Mwyland is using a similar type of program and have reaped die benefits. Pregnancy has drof^ 13% between 1988 and 1989. This {MX)gram is community based and most importandy includes the parents. Maryland has a billboard that says, “Virgin—Teach Your Kids It’s Ncrt A Dirty Word.” And this is the key to the |xograms. If the sdiool works on changii^ attitudes instead ofjust saying they’re going to do it, so let’s help iwotea them, things would begin to turn around Teenagers need to have more expected of them, not less. Let’s give them ttea chance.
Meredith College Student Newspaper
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April 21, 1993, edition 1
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