Condoms=First Aid
Why Condoms Should be Available in Schools

Art by Machelle Tran | VOX Staff

By Chernail Arnold | VOX Staff

I was talking to my friend Harry* early this summer about how sexual education is a big part of sexual development. He and I both agreed that all students need good sex ed to be properly informed about sex and its consequences.

After careful consideration and thought, I said, “Condoms should be available to all students.” The words just spilled from my mouth.

“What?” Harry blurted.

“I believe that high schools should have condoms for their students,” I stood firm.

“Are you crazy?” Harry asked. “If students are having sex they can get condoms from other places, but school shouldn’t be the place! Condom availability will turn the school into a breeding ground for kids. I just don’t think it’s a good idea, that’s all.”

Harry’s response to my statement had little effect on me. I had already made up my mind. I think condoms should be available in school settings for students to get without facing scrutiny and discomfort.

Better than Band-Aids
According to the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (G-CAPP),“Current state law prohibits school employees, facilities on school property or any facilities operated by the school district from distributing contraceptives. The Georgia Department of Education also expressly forbids schools from using state funds for distributing contraceptives.” These educators and politicians argue that condoms will promote promiscuity.

Students are having sex. That is the reality. “Nearly half (46 percent) of all 15-19 year olds in the United States have had sex at least once,” reports the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit organization that focuses on promoting on sexual health. Telling teens to refrain does not do the job. And what harm can condoms do if you’re not having sex? Students who are not sexually active will not need them.

Schools need to keep condoms on hand so sexually-active students can get them and be protected. No one wants students to fall or get hurt, but it happens. And that is why most school nurses keep hot/cold compressors, bandages and other first aid items handy.

Condoms can prevent accidents from even happening. According to the University of Georgia’s Health Center, condoms are 98 percent effective when used properly, and they can protect against unintended pregnancies as well as sexually transmitted infections.

Sexual Miseducation
Abstinence-only programs seem to stress self-denial as the only protection against disease and pregnancy. Abstinence itself is based on the belief that sex before marriage is immoral. But not everyone is raised with those values nor will they accept them.

To this day the U.S. Congress has spent more than $1 billion on abstinence-only programs, according to the Guttmacher Institute. But these programs, which hold the most federal and state funding, may leave out critical information. A 2004 report by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) shows “most popular federally-funded abstinence-only sex education curricula contain pervasive errors and misinformation on a wide range of important sexual and reproductive health issues” including “underestimating the effectiveness of condoms and other contraceptives in preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.”

Comprehensive sexual education programs teach abstinence as the number one way to prevent sexual transmitted infections and pregnancy, but they also teach effective methods to protect yourself if you’re going to have sex. Numerous studies find that comprehensive sex-ed programs can help young people delay intercourse, reduce the frequency of intercourse, reduce the number of sexual partners they have, and increase their use of condoms and other contraceptive methods when they do become sexual active.

A 1997 New York University study in the American Journal for Public Health found that sexually-active high school students in New York, where there is a condom availability program, were more likely to report using a condom than in Chicago, where condoms are not available in the school (60.8 to 55.5 percent). Only about 420 public schools in the United States offer students condoms, according to Advocates for Youth, a group that promotes comprehensive sexual education.

Give Us Condoms or Give Us Death
The problem is not that more teens are having sex. The problem is that teens are having unprotected sex. A 2005 youth behavior report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 47 percent of high school students reported that they have already engaged in sexual intercourse. Nearly one-third of those teens said they didn’t use a condom the last time they had sex. That puts them at risk of sexually transmitted infections, like AIDS and syphilis, which can kill. Teens need condoms.

Yes, they can get condoms at drugstores and grocers or even from some health care providers for free. But some clerks give teens a hard time when they try to get condoms. That’s why condoms should be available in school resource rooms, the nurse’s office, or the counselor’s office. Students should have easy access to condoms without facing harassment or shame.

Chernail is a junior at Washington High.hool who has recaptured her undying will to try.

*Name witheld