By, Heather Warner
Usually a letter being sent home from a high school principal means something went wrong at school. But, in Main, the letter is an offer to parents, to allow their child to get birth control at school.
Students at Augusta high school near Portland, now have access to birth control, condoms, and pregnancy tests–with parental consent. The principal says the district wanted to do something to curb the rate of teen pregnancy in the area. She cites statistics that show about 68 out of every thousand students in Augusta will become pregnant.
The lone board member who opposes the plan says the statistics are misleading. “We can’t be everything to everybody. There’s already these services being offered in the community. By adding these services into the school and expanding the services we offer, we take away from our core mission which is reading, writing, arithmetic,” says Lawrence Ringrose.
There are three other school districts in Maine have implemented a similar program. What do you think about the principals decision to offer contraceptives and pregnancy tests through the school?