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Summary of Bishop Attacks School Condom Plan

By: Chris Rice
This article discusses the Holyoke Schools decision to disperse condoms to students
from sixth to twelfth grade. This shows the school districts support of safe sex. Holyoke School
district decided on this because of the citys high teenage birthrate and high incidence of AIDS.
The school is not just handing out condoms to students though. Before a student may receive
condoms, they must have a conversation with a school nurse, who will discuss pregnancy, AIDS,
abstinence and how condoms are not always completely effective with these students. The school
also notified all parents of this and parents can then send back a form that prevents their children
of receiving condoms. This plan seemed necessary to the Holyoke School district because of the
fact that their teen birth rate was 82 per 1,000 which is much higher than the states rate of 23 per
1,000. This plan also seemed to be a necessity because the high school had such a high rate of
pregnant students, as well as a few in the middle school and even as young as sixth grade. There
are a few school committee members that disagree with the new policy because they believe that
it sends the wrong message to the children and parents of the community. They believe that sex
education would be beneficial but there is no need to hand out condoms. Not many parents seem
happy about the idea of their kids engaging in sexual activities, but some also understand that
many kids dont listen to their parents, so in that case, protection is a necessity.