Savannah Mul – Opinions Editor –
New York City has been causing a great deal of controversy lately, starting with their recently passed soda ban. Now, they are beginning to dispense the Plan B pill to teenage girls in middle school and high school environments. Months ago, the Plan B pill was in the news when it became available to college students at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. The Plan B pill was being dispensed through vending machines at the college campus. Now NYC is taking a more drastic route and allowing girls as young as 15-years-old to have the opportunity to take Plan B.
New York’s major reason for enacting this ruling is to decrease pregnancies within the NYC population. The Montreal Gazette reports, “More than 7,000 New York City girls ages 15-17 get pregnant each year. More than two-thirds of those pregnancies end in abortions.”
Before NYC or any other city enforces the distribution of Plan B, there is another possible solution: sex education classes. Growing up, I never had any sex education programs. When the lessons did arise, it was all about staying abstinent for as long as you can and all of the STDs you can possibly acquire from sexual intercourse. After about three classes of this, it got boring and we all were informed on what can happen.
How about including the consequences of having sex, what is a 50-50 result in having sex and ways to have sex, but at the same time how to be safe about it. From the statistic above, 7,000 NYC young girls get pregnant between ages 15-17; this also proves that there can very well be a lack of sex education courses in New York state school system as well.
Some parents don’t even tell their children about the birds and the bees. The parents might assume that their children will figure it out on their own and come to them if they have questions; but that’s not always the case.
Driving into school last Tuesday morning, I first heard of this report on radio 104.1; DJ Fisch was taking phone calls on this particular subject. After several phone calls from women and mothers angered by the idea of making Plan B available to young girls, a gynecologist called. She pointed out the fact that the world isn’t perfect and for all anyone knows, girls can be sexually abused in their home life and this pill may be their only option. The doctor that called in also said Plan B is not a valid form of birth control and girls and women shouldn’t rely on it for birth control.
Within the state of Connecticut, sex education classes should be required courses thoroughly taught, compared to the scene in “Mean Girls” when the gym teacher is teaching students about abstinence, and if you do decide to have sex you’ll die. That’s a bit extreme and exactly how not to teach sex education.
Middle and high school courses are the perfect time to educate young students about the topic in a serious and mature manner. Especially when student’s minds start to drift about the possibility of engaging in sexual activity. With the education behind them, maybe students will be more educated about the topic and the decisions they should or should not make. Maybe then the dispensing of the Plan B pill to girls 15-years-old and on wouldn’t have to be implemented.
