The College Fix

Imagine a girl of 14 walking into her school health clinic, without her parents accompanying her, to pick up a pack of pills. Parents in New London have to sign a general waiver for their kids to use the school health clinic. But does that mean that parents who sign are actually aware that the school will be giving the pill to their kids? Shouldn’t the sex lives of kids who’ve barely reached puberty be subject to the direct guidance of parents?

Not everyone agrees. “I think it’s a great idea because it’s better safe than sorry,” said one New London parent in regard to the school’s pill and condom distribution program. “With all the diseases going around it’s better safe than sorry.”

Advocates of this sort of thing say it’s all for the good of the children. But I say there is something wrong about outsourcing such parental responsibilities to the government.

Why stop at simply giving them the pill? Isn’t there more the government could do? Why not reserve some rooms in the school itself for safe, government-monitored sexual activity? Stock the rooms with cheap cologne, vibrating beds, and piles and piles of pills and condoms. A school health official should be posted at every bedside to monitor safe sex practices, and to be sure those 14-year-old girls aren’t so distracted by the Hannah Montana and Twilight soundtracks piping in on their iPods that they forget to take their morning-after pills on the way out the door.

There seems to be no such thing as invasion of privacy, or violation of parental authority, whenever government bureaucrats take it upon themselves to manage kids’ sexual health.

Over in England, prurient officials are even bolder. A few years ago, the British government sent out a memo to numerous cities, asking them to step up birth control efforts among teenagers. As a result, last year, more than 1,700 schoolgirls aged 13 and 14 were administered surgery to implant a hormone-releasing contraceptive device. Best of all, not one parent was notified. Not one parent gave consent for these surgeries.

All around the world, seemingly, officials who believe they know how better to raise your kids than you do stand at the ready, with a pill to hand out and a surgery to perform on your daughter. Never mind the emotional repercussions of sex at 13. Never mind the special role parents are supposed to have in providing moral guidance, or the right they ought to have to make healthcare decisions for their children. Increasingly, in these times, the government claims the right to make such decisions.

Is any government official worthy of such responsibility? Ask the parents at Miramonte elementary school in Los Angeles. The entire staff was replaced this week after two male teachers were charged with sexually preying on young students. Complaints of sexual misconduct related to one of the two men go back more than twenty years. Students who reported the teachers’ actions were allegedly told by school officials not to “invent stories.”

Incredibly, one girl, after being victimized and filing complaints with the school, was transferred from one predator’s classroom to the other. When these kids go on to middle school and high school, these same negligent officials will undoubtedly be waiting with a pocket full of pills, or maybe even offers of free contraceptive surgery without parental notification.

“My trust level is at zero,” said the mother of a third-grader at Miramonte.

When it comes to making sex-related decisions for our kids, zero is more trust than the government deserves.

This column originally appeared in the International Business Times, and is reprinted here with permission. Follow Nathan on Twitter @nathanharden