Imagine having a neighbor that has a large backyard, complete with a pool. Imagine living in a neighborhood with a lot of kids that want in the pool, but don't know how to swim. You can board up the pool all you want, but kids being kids, they're going to get in there. Wouldn't it be more practical to teach those kids how to swim?



In many ways, while the metaphor tones down the intensity, the situation above applies to the long-running debate regarding birth control methods being distributed in schools. The comparison is relatively simple, really. Teens being teens, a vast majority of them are going to end up having sex without parental consent. You can board up that pool by keeping them in the dark all you want, they're eventually going to learn about it. As with swimming in a pool, wouldn't it be safer overall to teach the kids about safe sex and contraceptives?

There are people who are willing to tolerate public school administrations giving out birth control methods to their students, along with the appropriate knowledge of how to use them properly. These people see the things from a point of practicality and, according to them, realism. Teenagers are having sex anyway, so they might as well use what means they can to make sure they're having safe sex. However, there is an opposing camp. The opposition believes that schools giving out birth control methods like condoms and the pill infringe upon parental rights, and possibly even some privacy protection laws.

In the US, virtually anyone of any age has relatively easy access to a variety of birth control methods. The market that these products taps into is an expansive one, covering all of the social strata almost equally. This easy access extends to teenagers, even if most parents would much rather deny that their teen children aren't doing the same sorts of things they were doing when they were that age. Hormones are powerful things, but so is the human capacity for denial. This denial, some sociologists believe, is at the root of the missing half of the equation. Yes, teenagers have ready access to various contraceptives, but what they don't have is relatively easy access to first-hand information on how to properly use them.

Pregnancy isn't the only problem with the avoidance of sex education and birth control awareness, however. Yes, unwanted pregnancies are a major concern, but one must also consider the fact that sexually transmitted diseases exist. A number of contraceptives also offer some degree of defense against STD infection, though not all of them do. This is as much of a concern as anything else, particularly if kids around that age change sexual partners as frequently as some (admittedly dubious) statistics imply. The fact that most teenagers admit getting their knowledge of sex and related topics from sources other than their parents ought to be alarming, mainly because it is a parental duty to inform teenagers about this sort of thing.

The debate about whether or not schools, and by extension, the government, have any right to distribute birth control methods like the condom and the diaphragm to students is likely one that cannot be solved. There will always be a group that insists this infringes on parental rights, while another will insist that parental rights are secondary to the overall well-being of their children.