From: utzoo!decvax!duke!phs!sam
Newsgroups: net.singles
Title: Birth Control Education
Article-I.D.: phs.1578
Posted: Sun Apr 17 18:24:04 1983
Received: Wed Apr 20 23:36:22 1983



I went to high school in a predominantly blue-collar, very conservative
town in southern New Jersey. I graduated in 1974.  The only birth
control education I received was from a health teacher who discussed it
in class (all girls) but only with the door closed and a student posted
by it to give warning should the principle happen to appear around the
corner.  I give her a lot of creidit, she was new in town, untenured, and
thus risking her job.  She did it because she was one of the teachers called
in to administer first aid to a senior who had tried to give herself an
abortion with a knitting needle in the second floor girl's bathroom.
I can easily imagine how she feels about the "squeal law".

Things have improved somewhat since then.  Now a counselor from the
local birth control clinic gives a talk once a year, but (I believe
this is still true) only to the senior girls.  Many of the girls in
her audience have already begun their families by that time.  When
will the folks responsible ever realize that the time for birth
control education for both sexes is in GRADE SCHOOL !!!!!  Well,
at least they let pregnant students stay in school for as long as
they care to, instead of keeping them at home with a tutor, as if
it were contagious.  Things improve, but slowly.

I did manage to get a reputation for being fast because I wrote a letter
to the principle suggestin g that contraceptive vending machines be
installed in all student bathrooms!!!  Oh, you should have seen the
look on his face...

                  al suggestion that contraceptive vending machines be
installed in all student bathrooms!!   Oh, you should have seen the look
on his face...