Sex Sells... Again & Again

Nothing gets the emotionalism pressure cooker up to full steam like adolescent sex. The national fervor over a Maine middle school passing out birth control pills has everybody’s panties in a collective wad.

First off, I’d like to go on record as saying THIS IS NOT NEWS. Well, it is news, along the same lines as Brittney’s exposed cooter or the latest update in Hollywood rehab/divorce court/adoption service is news. What this issue lacks in celebrity it makes up for in scandalous supposition. 11 year olds having sex?!? Oh my!!!

Nope, still not news.

That said, I think the school board and the school nurse made the right call. Offering birth control isn’t going to make kids go out and have sex. If it does, your parental skills (or the decision making ability you taught your kids) should be called into question more so than the offering of contraceptives. But of course the way the reports play out over the TV make it sound like a school sponsored orgy and that scares people. Never mind the fact that if you’ve guided your children throughout their lives and helped them understand what is considered appropriate behavior according to your values that this hubbub about birth control would be nothing more than a blip on the social radar... free, non-parental solicited birth control equals a school full of horn dogs having gratuitous sex anywhere and everywhere.

I have a middle school aged child and as she gets older I realize my control over her is waning. It is scary and I don’t like it, but sticking my head in the sand and pretending sex doesn’t exist isn’t an effective plan of attack against teen pregnancy. Did the school in Maine take a nanny-government stance in its drive to offer birth control to middle school aged girls? Without a doubt, YES. But if everyone was living the prim and proper life they all like to pretend they are living, the birth control thing would be a moot point now wouldn’t it? I’d go so far as to applaud the girls who seek out birth control from the school or health department, at least they’ve demonstrated better life choice skills than their parents who chose to avoid the issue altogether.