Why We Should Be Allowed To Have Condoms In High Schools
Arika Wilson
Core101-58
Ms. LaFon
December 9, 2013
Safe Sex Or Else
According to Dr. Ray Bohlin, the increasing amount of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the United States is a recent epidemic. Some critics believe that allowing condoms in high school will increase sexual activity. Supporters think providing contraceptives in high school would curtail the prevalence of STDs and pregnancies among teens within the United States. High schools should be allowed to give their students condoms in order to reduce the rate of teens receiving STDs and/or getting pregnant.
During the 1960s, gonorrhea and syphilis were the first two sexually transmitted diseases discovered (Bohlin, 1993). In today’s society, there are at least twenty-five sexually transmitted diseases, some being fatal. Nearly nineteen million STDs affect people among the ages of fifteen and twenty-four each year. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 40,000 to 80,000 cases of HIV in the United States occur each year. People that are twenty-five and younger …show more content…
are estimated to have half of these new infections (Center for Disease Control, 2013). In December 2000, 774,467 AIDS cases were reported and out of that number 4,061 were teenagers (Illinois Department of Public Health, N.D.). In the year 2009 more than 400,000 teenage girls gave birth. One out of eight women from the ages of fifteen to nineteen will get pregnant in the United States. (Center for Disease Control, 2013)
Schools that support contraceptives have found value in the positive impact on the schools and its students. In New York City and Chicago, schools have high percentage of sexually active students and this program has encouraged students to use condoms more frequent and consistently. In New York, the condom rate increase significantly, but the sexual activity did not. The World Health Organization claims having contraceptives in the school does not increase sexual activity among the teenage population (School Condom Availability, N.D.).
In Washington D.C. public schools gave out over 200,000 condoms to grades ninth through twelfth. They decided to join a program called Wrap M.C., an organization that promotes the use of contraceptives throughout high school/school systems. In order for the faculty to give out the condoms at school, they had to complete a webinar and past a post-test. The staff had to give their certificate to the Wrap M.C. coordinator either take this out, or explain the significance of who this person is and why they are important. After passing these tests successfully, HAHSTA (Health HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD & Tuberculosis Administration) gave the northern school systems all the materials to start distributing contraceptives to their students. The next step was to encourage the students to be apart of the Wrap M.C program to promote condoms to their peers. The program had the Wrap M.C. coordinator visit their school as a guest to talk about this significant information about the community and the importance of student health. “HAHSTA provided the students with materials as well upon passing the tests successfully. With this program the District of Columbia public school, both elementary and secondary schools, got 175 million dollars in the year 2009.” (CNS News, 2012).
Philadelphia schools gave their students an alarm after their Christmas break in year 2012. The nurses’ offices had a dispenser with free condoms in twenty-two schools. The free condom promotion is apart of the “Pilot Program” and with this program they are trying to reduce the amount sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents. The city deputy mayor of Philadelphia reports that twenty-five percent of teens have cases of HIV and thought that giving out condoms to schools will reduce this rate. Even though parents did not like to hear about their kids having sexual intercourse, the school knows that it is an ongoing health problem within the school system. Dispensing these contraceptives is in favor with the mayor of Philadelphia, as he wants the students to be safe if they are engaging in sex. (Philadelphia High Schools Provide Free Condoms for Students, 2013).
With abstinent programs in high school they gives out misleading or false information. With the sixty-nine organization in the United States, twenty-five of them blurred religion with science and they gave unproven claims to the students. Among the misconceptions they told students that you can get HIV by sweat and tears, Half of gay men in the United States test HIV positive, and pregnancy results in touching someone genitals. They also have told students that condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse, women who have an abortion is highly prone to suicide, and a forty-three day old fetus is a “thinking fetus.” (School Condom Availability, N.D.). We as humans should ask ourselves why would we want that taught to our kids if it is false. With that program in schools kids will go into the world blind as a bat. By giving them false information it makes students actually wanting to find out what is the truth and end up in situations they do not want to be in.
The controversies of having contraceptives in high schools are that parents may be against it. Tom Coburn, a United State Representative, attacks the idea of having condoms in high school because it he believes promoting abstinence is a better solution. He believes that having condoms will not decrease the rates of pregnancy and STD rates. “The American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs correctly states that many youths are sexually experienced and need the knowledge, motivation, skills, and access to condoms and contraceptives to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies.” (Making condoms available in schools, 2012).
According to guttmatcher.org, the condom use in some adolescence does not have a significant impact among them.
A study at a three school-based clinic claims to provide free contraceptives to students. Fifteen to eighteen percent of male students that are sexually active are using the availability of these condoms in their high school. With those fifteen to eighteen percent of male students, many of them only use the condoms from these clinics only once. “One study of three such school-based clinics revealed that the presence of the clinic was not associated with greater sexual activity, and that condom availability was not significantly associated with greater condom use by students in the respective schools.” With this program at this day in time they only gave the male students the condoms, and they would take the females to a family planning clinic. (Condom Availability Programs in U.S. Schools,
N.D.).
Due to sexually transmitted diseases and unintended teenage pregnancies, providing contraceptives to high school students can stop this issue. By giving out condoms to high school students, the rate of teenage pregnancies between fourteen and seventeen year old women decreases significantly. The websites that support giving out student’s condoms to high school student shows that it works for the school that used it. While having this program it reduced the STD and unintended pregnancy rate. If every school went to this suggestion in my opinion would reduce the rate of wedlock baby’s and STD rates will be low in adolescences. This program could help out the United States by having more adolescence going to college and getting an education. Statistics show that less than two percent of teenage girls who have unintended baby’s graduate from college by the age of thirty. (Background on Teenage Pregnancy, N.D.). If we start by giving out these condoms, we can reduce the rate of STDs and unintended pregnancies among our youth. In United States we should not want our baby’s making babies nor do we want our offspring dying off by making a mistake. By reducing the rate it will be younger adult will graduate from high school and go off to college and get a degree. In America, that is the main key to “success” is to have a college degree. If we have more people going to college that means more money is being spent and the economy grow.
References:
Bohlin, D. (1993). The epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases. Retrieved on
November 7, 2013 from: http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/epid-std.html.
Sexual Risk Behavior: HIV, STD, & Teen Pregnancy Prevention. (2013, August 26).
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/sexualbehaviors/ Making condoms available in schools. (2012, April 3). National Center for
Biotechnology Information. Retrieved November 8, 2013, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1070786/ Illinois Department of Public Health. (N.D.). Adolescence at risk. Retrieved on November 6, 2013 from: http://www.idph.state.il.us/public/respect/hiv_fs.htm.
CNS News. (2012, August 9). Melanie. Retrieved November 5, 2013, from http://cnsnews.com/news/article/dc-gave-away-200000-condoms-public-high-schools-last-year-16-student Philadelphia High Schools Provide Free Condoms for Students. (2013, January 4).
Philadelphia High Schools Provide Free Condoms for Students. Retrieved November 9, 2013, from http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/faith-and-morals/item/14104-philadelphia-high-schools-provide-free-condoms-for-students
School Condom Availability. (N.D.). School Condom Availability. Retrieved
November 5, 2013, from http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/597
Background on Teenage Pregnancy. (N.D.). Do Something. Retrieved November 8, 2013, from http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/background-teenage-pregnancy
Condom Availability Programs in U.S. Schools. (n.d.). Condom Availability Programs in
U.S. Schools. Retrieved November 8, 2013, from http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/2819696.html
School Condom Availability. (n.d.). School Condom Availability. Retrieved November 9,
2013, from http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/449
Writer’s Memo
1. Does your paper have a clear sense of the purpose? What did you want the paper to do for a specific audience? What were you trying to understand or have them understand? What’s the “resonating concern” in the piece?
a. Yes, my paper has a clear sense of purpose. I wanted my paper to reach out people that we have a serious problem with unintended pregnancies and STDs rate among adolescences in America. I want them to understand that young adults are dying from STDs and our baby’s are making babies, and we can do something about it. Condoms should be giving out to high school students.
2. Is there analysis, or some sense that the specific examples have further implications? What did you do to develop your example? Why did you organize the paper that way?
a. I did research on schools that actually did this program and how much it worked. The reason I organized my paper the way I did is because it flow great that way.
3. What specific skills do you need to work on (fragments, comma splices, spelling, word choices, wordiness, paragraph, organization, etc.)? Which readings influenced you?
a. Word choices, because I feel that it was hard to find the right appropriate word to use for my paper. Tre’s paper influenced me the most by the info he has.
4. What did you go through (free writing, last minute?)? What are you learning about writing and the writing process? What kinds of feedback did you get in peer review? And, what did you focus on in revision? Reflect on at least one writing problem and they way you recognized and solved it
a. Writing the rough draft was last minute. I learn that I need to start writing ahead of time so I will not behind so much. I changed my word play tremendously. Words that did not make much since and I changed them so the paper would flow better.
5. Did you explore uncharted territory in the paper or risk in some way, to approach the topic from a new angle or perspective, or to write about something difficult? Did you attempt to fulfill the assignment in a fresh way? Take risk revision?
a. Yes, I look at the opposing side and wrote about it just as much as I did supporting deals. Yes, I attempted to fulfill the assignment in a fresh way. Yes, I went to the LARC for help.
Core101-58
Ms. LaFon
December 9, 2013
Safe Sex Or Else
According to Dr. Ray Bohlin, the increasing amount of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the United States is a recent epidemic. Some critics believe that allowing condoms in high school will increase sexual activity. Supporters think providing contraceptives in high school would curtail the prevalence of STDs and pregnancies among teens within the United States. High schools should be allowed to give their students condoms in order to reduce the rate of teens receiving STDs and/or getting pregnant.
During the 1960s, gonorrhea and syphilis were the first two sexually transmitted diseases discovered (Bohlin, 1993). In today’s society, there are at least twenty-five sexually transmitted diseases, some being fatal. Nearly nineteen million STDs affect people among the ages of fifteen and twenty-four each year. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, 40,000 to 80,000 cases of HIV in the United States occur each year. People that are twenty-five and younger …show more content…
are estimated to have half of these new infections (Center for Disease Control, 2013). In December 2000, 774,467 AIDS cases were reported and out of that number 4,061 were teenagers (Illinois Department of Public Health, N.D.). In the year 2009 more than 400,000 teenage girls gave birth. One out of eight women from the ages of fifteen to nineteen will get pregnant in the United States. (Center for Disease Control, 2013)
Schools that support contraceptives have found value in the positive impact on the schools and its students. In New York City and Chicago, schools have high percentage of sexually active students and this program has encouraged students to use condoms more frequent and consistently. In New York, the condom rate increase significantly, but the sexual activity did not. The World Health Organization claims having contraceptives in the school does not increase sexual activity among the teenage population (School Condom Availability, N.D.).
In Washington D.C. public schools gave out over 200,000 condoms to grades ninth through twelfth. They decided to join a program called Wrap M.C., an organization that promotes the use of contraceptives throughout high school/school systems. In order for the faculty to give out the condoms at school, they had to complete a webinar and past a post-test. The staff had to give their certificate to the Wrap M.C. coordinator either take this out, or explain the significance of who this person is and why they are important. After passing these tests successfully, HAHSTA (Health HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD & Tuberculosis Administration) gave the northern school systems all the materials to start distributing contraceptives to their students. The next step was to encourage the students to be apart of the Wrap M.C program to promote condoms to their peers. The program had the Wrap M.C. coordinator visit their school as a guest to talk about this significant information about the community and the importance of student health. “HAHSTA provided the students with materials as well upon passing the tests successfully. With this program the District of Columbia public school, both elementary and secondary schools, got 175 million dollars in the year 2009.” (CNS News, 2012).
Philadelphia schools gave their students an alarm after their Christmas break in year 2012. The nurses’ offices had a dispenser with free condoms in twenty-two schools. The free condom promotion is apart of the “Pilot Program” and with this program they are trying to reduce the amount sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents. The city deputy mayor of Philadelphia reports that twenty-five percent of teens have cases of HIV and thought that giving out condoms to schools will reduce this rate. Even though parents did not like to hear about their kids having sexual intercourse, the school knows that it is an ongoing health problem within the school system. Dispensing these contraceptives is in favor with the mayor of Philadelphia, as he wants the students to be safe if they are engaging in sex. (Philadelphia High Schools Provide Free Condoms for Students, 2013).
With abstinent programs in high school they gives out misleading or false information. With the sixty-nine organization in the United States, twenty-five of them blurred religion with science and they gave unproven claims to the students. Among the misconceptions they told students that you can get HIV by sweat and tears, Half of gay men in the United States test HIV positive, and pregnancy results in touching someone genitals. They also have told students that condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse, women who have an abortion is highly prone to suicide, and a forty-three day old fetus is a “thinking fetus.” (School Condom Availability, N.D.). We as humans should ask ourselves why would we want that taught to our kids if it is false. With that program in schools kids will go into the world blind as a bat. By giving them false information it makes students actually wanting to find out what is the truth and end up in situations they do not want to be in.
The controversies of having contraceptives in high schools are that parents may be against it. Tom Coburn, a United State Representative, attacks the idea of having condoms in high school because it he believes promoting abstinence is a better solution. He believes that having condoms will not decrease the rates of pregnancy and STD rates. “The American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs correctly states that many youths are sexually experienced and need the knowledge, motivation, skills, and access to condoms and contraceptives to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies.” (Making condoms available in schools, 2012).
According to guttmatcher.org, the condom use in some adolescence does not have a significant impact among them.
A study at a three school-based clinic claims to provide free contraceptives to students. Fifteen to eighteen percent of male students that are sexually active are using the availability of these condoms in their high school. With those fifteen to eighteen percent of male students, many of them only use the condoms from these clinics only once. “One study of three such school-based clinics revealed that the presence of the clinic was not associated with greater sexual activity, and that condom availability was not significantly associated with greater condom use by students in the respective schools.” With this program at this day in time they only gave the male students the condoms, and they would take the females to a family planning clinic. (Condom Availability Programs in U.S. Schools,
N.D.).
Due to sexually transmitted diseases and unintended teenage pregnancies, providing contraceptives to high school students can stop this issue. By giving out condoms to high school students, the rate of teenage pregnancies between fourteen and seventeen year old women decreases significantly. The websites that support giving out student’s condoms to high school student shows that it works for the school that used it. While having this program it reduced the STD and unintended pregnancy rate. If every school went to this suggestion in my opinion would reduce the rate of wedlock baby’s and STD rates will be low in adolescences. This program could help out the United States by having more adolescence going to college and getting an education. Statistics show that less than two percent of teenage girls who have unintended baby’s graduate from college by the age of thirty. (Background on Teenage Pregnancy, N.D.). If we start by giving out these condoms, we can reduce the rate of STDs and unintended pregnancies among our youth. In United States we should not want our baby’s making babies nor do we want our offspring dying off by making a mistake. By reducing the rate it will be younger adult will graduate from high school and go off to college and get a degree. In America, that is the main key to “success” is to have a college degree. If we have more people going to college that means more money is being spent and the economy grow.
References:
Bohlin, D. (1993). The epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases. Retrieved on
November 7, 2013 from: http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/epid-std.html.
Sexual Risk Behavior: HIV, STD, & Teen Pregnancy Prevention. (2013, August 26).
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/sexualbehaviors/ Making condoms available in schools. (2012, April 3). National Center for
Biotechnology Information. Retrieved November 8, 2013, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1070786/ Illinois Department of Public Health. (N.D.). Adolescence at risk. Retrieved on November 6, 2013 from: http://www.idph.state.il.us/public/respect/hiv_fs.htm.
CNS News. (2012, August 9). Melanie. Retrieved November 5, 2013, from http://cnsnews.com/news/article/dc-gave-away-200000-condoms-public-high-schools-last-year-16-student Philadelphia High Schools Provide Free Condoms for Students. (2013, January 4).
Philadelphia High Schools Provide Free Condoms for Students. Retrieved November 9, 2013, from http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/faith-and-morals/item/14104-philadelphia-high-schools-provide-free-condoms-for-students
School Condom Availability. (N.D.). School Condom Availability. Retrieved
November 5, 2013, from http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/597
Background on Teenage Pregnancy. (N.D.). Do Something. Retrieved November 8, 2013, from http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/background-teenage-pregnancy
Condom Availability Programs in U.S. Schools. (n.d.). Condom Availability Programs in
U.S. Schools. Retrieved November 8, 2013, from http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/2819696.html
School Condom Availability. (n.d.). School Condom Availability. Retrieved November 9,
2013, from http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/449
Writer’s Memo
1. Does your paper have a clear sense of the purpose? What did you want the paper to do for a specific audience? What were you trying to understand or have them understand? What’s the “resonating concern” in the piece?
a. Yes, my paper has a clear sense of purpose. I wanted my paper to reach out people that we have a serious problem with unintended pregnancies and STDs rate among adolescences in America. I want them to understand that young adults are dying from STDs and our baby’s are making babies, and we can do something about it. Condoms should be giving out to high school students.
2. Is there analysis, or some sense that the specific examples have further implications? What did you do to develop your example? Why did you organize the paper that way?
a. I did research on schools that actually did this program and how much it worked. The reason I organized my paper the way I did is because it flow great that way.
3. What specific skills do you need to work on (fragments, comma splices, spelling, word choices, wordiness, paragraph, organization, etc.)? Which readings influenced you?
a. Word choices, because I feel that it was hard to find the right appropriate word to use for my paper. Tre’s paper influenced me the most by the info he has.
4. What did you go through (free writing, last minute?)? What are you learning about writing and the writing process? What kinds of feedback did you get in peer review? And, what did you focus on in revision? Reflect on at least one writing problem and they way you recognized and solved it
a. Writing the rough draft was last minute. I learn that I need to start writing ahead of time so I will not behind so much. I changed my word play tremendously. Words that did not make much since and I changed them so the paper would flow better.
5. Did you explore uncharted territory in the paper or risk in some way, to approach the topic from a new angle or perspective, or to write about something difficult? Did you attempt to fulfill the assignment in a fresh way? Take risk revision?
a. Yes, I look at the opposing side and wrote about it just as much as I did supporting deals. Yes, I attempted to fulfill the assignment in a fresh way. Yes, I went to the LARC for help.