All Vermont middle and high schoolers (age 11 on up) will have access to free condoms under new law

  • Thread starter Thread starter mdgspencer
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Allowing condom access to kids can one of two ways.

They use them and hopefully avoid pregnancy and STDs.
They don’t use them and get pregnant and/or get STDs.

If you want to make sure kids endure the consequences of sex, then restrict their availability…assuring large numbers of unwed mothers or abortions or sterility from the STDs.

If withholding them makes you feel that you are also discouraging sex, you might feel better but you’re not being realistic.

I don’t like the idea that kids are having sex without marriage and way too young but I don’t think unwanted children and lifelong sterility is going to cure the sexualization of our children either. That horse left the barn years ago. So, protection or punishment?
 
On the one hand, I don’t think it’s an either/or situation. As in, either kids get condoms or kids get pregnant, std infected, and/or sterile. there are other possibilities.
On the other hand, this is also getting into the philosophical question of the purpose of a school.
In many ways schools have superceded parents in what have traditionally been parental roles: childcare, meal provision, healthcare, and education to family/parenting/sexuality. Children are being offered medical care and access to birth control without parents being informed, let alone consenting.
I think this undermines parents and ultimately, does not serve the children well.
Kids can access birth control outside of school. We might argue about whether they ought to access birth control or to be sexually active, but I doubt that we would argue about availability of birth control outside of the school environment.
I would argue that it is the parents job to provide what a parent considers to be appropriate education and services in this area to their minor children.
Will children still, at times, go against their parents? Of course. Should schools be complicit in this? No.
 
Either the parents are instilling moral values onto their children and they have no need for condoms
Or
Parents are instilling their moral values onto children and thus they need condoms
Or
Parents are shirking their responsibilities to teach moral values altogether and the schools are trying to do damage control.

I don’t particularly like the idea of schools handing out condoms either. I just prefer that children not be punished for the rest of their lives because their parents failed, whether they tried or not. If push came to shove, I’d rather my child be given a condom he needs than teach him a lesson by ruining his life…but, I’m not Catholic and have no issue with condoms existing. I realize the Catholic teaching is quite different than my opinion on this.
 
Either the parents are instilling moral values onto their children and they have no need for condoms
Or
Parents are instilling their moral values onto children and thus they need condoms
Or
Parents are shirking their responsibilities to teach moral values altogether and the schools are trying to do damage control.
Or parents are instilling moral values and kids, like adults, slip up, or cave to the guy who complains about how condoms feel, or any of a host of other possibilities.
Normalizing condom carrying creates an expectation among kids.
Parents who think their kids should be carrying condoms at all time are welcome to provide their own.
Out here, we’re fighting to keep out school programs which want to teach sex positions to 8 year olds and co-bathing to 13 year olds. The schools are pushing sex and pushing birth control and offering access to abortion without parental knowledge or consent.
I am Catholic but I think that non-Catholics as well might be interested in having a bit more parental say in these matters.
 
This is a really good point. It has never been easier to get your own this way, without any scrutiny from any adult. So why would VT’s leaders go through the trouble and expense of this? This is a wise use of taxpayer money?
IMHO, no, but that doesn’t have much to do with what I was replying to. That would be a question to a VT taxpayer and their school boards and dept of ed.
 
When I worked in a home for unwed mothers, we had more than one 11 year old mom come through our doors.
When I worked at Catholic Charities we had a school for pregnant young girls. Yes, I do mean girls. I’m talking some of them only 10 years old, and some returned year after year pregnant again. I don’t know how or why no one was able to find who was impregnating these children and prosecute them. It was terribly sad. I suppose incest was involved in many cases.

People who take advantage of children back then (40 years ago) didn’t bother with condoms. I wonder if it’s any different now with DNA testing available. ☹️
 
Re: parental authority being undermined at school, it looks like D.C. is trying to make it possible for kids to receive vaccinations without parental consent (for kids 11 and up).
From the article:
The bill as originally proposed by council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) would have included children of any age. In revisions, the health committee limited it to children 11 and older.

“The legislation adds vaccines to the list of medical services that youths in D.C. can access by law without their parents’ involvement, including substance abuse and mental health counseling and birth control prescriptions.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...1aw1JFFqWmofs6ksdLQYgvBwae9ce1kw5YWiNrilj6-n4
 
Have children at this age reached an ability to consent to medical decisions for themselves or not?
They can’t make a legal decision until what, 18 or 21? Is consenting to a medical vaccine a legal decision or a personal one?

Lots of questions from me, not necessarily answers, though…
 
It’s a grey area. A person who is capable of understanding the effects of a medical treatment should be able to consent or refuse it, in their own right. Most children are capable of this before they are 18 (if I was a doctor I would presume this ability at about 14 if the child in question has a normal cognitive development).
 
But there’s a difference between being able to know, in an intellectual way, that certain choices are more healthy, and having the maturity to put it into practice or delaying gratification or resisting peer pressure.
 
But there’s a difference between being able to know, in an intellectual way, that certain choices are more healthy, and having the maturity to put it into practice or delaying gratification or resisting peer pressure.
The 2008 mortgage crisis suggest that even adults don’t have this maturity. I find the age restrictions in our society to be convoluted at best.
 
Last edited:
The 2008 mortgage crisis suggest that even adults don’t have this maturity.
True dat 🙂

There are young person who are pretty level headed and old folks who act like idiots and everything in between.

However, when we’re dealing with large groups of people it’s safe to say that with age comes a certain level of maturity and wisdom.

I mean, we clearly can’t have seven year olds driving the car.
 
I agree,
It worries me because I see the state increasingly encroaching upon the role of parents and while I oftentimes sympathize with the desire to care for kids (and certainly recognize that the state has lots of resources via our tax dollars) to use for social programs, I don’t want to see parental authority undermined by, or superceeded by, state authority.
Sometimes, the ends/goals of the state action seem laudable but the means is such a problems that I’m just not willing to be supportive.
In Catholic teaching actions must involve a right intent, a right act, and a right consequence to be morally right. When I apply this lens, a lot of these programs seem problematical. Sneaking around the parents seems to fail in regard to right actions.

I’m also very nervous about the state’s interest in controlling reproduction (via school programs) and am watching the push to sneak vaccines past parents with a raise eyebrow as I know that, among other areas of vaccine development, there is work underway to create contraception deliverable via vaccination.


I really do not want public schools delivering vaccines to students.
 
I really do not want public schools delivering vaccines to students.
I totally agree with this. Since a vaccine is a medical procedure, it belongs in a medical setting. Not in a school setting. While I personally feel 11 is too young for a child to make a medical self decision, by 14 to 16…somewhere in there…the child is old enough to make a medical self decision. Parents might prefer 18 but I disagree. These kids by this age are pretty savvy and as long as the decision is being made with a doctor, I have no objection. I’ve heard of kids that have very anti vaccination parents and are frustrated that they have to wait until 18 to get one. (I’m assuming a normally developed child).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top