<p>My, my:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21358971/wid/11915773?GT1=10514[/url]”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21358971/wid/11915773?GT1=10514</a></p>
<p>They require parental consent.</p>
<p>I didn’t know schools had such extensive health program in their schools. </p>
<p>Saying that parental consent is required is misleading. According to the article, parental consent is required in order to receive any sort of treatment at the student health center. The particular care that is received remains confidential, and it is the student’s choice whether to tell her parents that she is on BC.</p>
<p>From the article:
</p>
<p>The worse year of my professional life was the year I delivered two 12 yo girls. It affected me in ways that are hard to describe. I saw one again when she was 20 and had an 8 yo. I wish I had not. Middle school kids just have no business having sex. We are failing somewhere.</p>
<p>
Absolutely.</p>
<p>I agree. IMHO, if kids that age are having sex, there’s no parenting going on in that home to begin with, and it’s not a problem that can be fixed with a consent form. I hope that they require girls coming into the clinic to have a private, serious talk with SOME adult – a guidance counselor, a social worker, a trusted teacher – as part of the program of care. There’s a whole series of social and medical disasters happening there, and birth control is only one facet of the help these kids need.</p>
<p>This has been on my mind since I saw the story on the Today Show this morning. I think it’s tragic that it’s even an issue–birth control for 11 to 13 year-olds. I do think birth control is preferable to child birth, parenthood or abortion for these kids. I also understand the confidentiality issues (note that the school has been granted blanket permission by the kids’ parents to treat them–but not necessarily been informed of what they are being treated for (unless the kid has granted access)–and the kids’ rights to privacy are protected by our federal government under the HIPA act). It seems to me that if an 11 year-old kid is having sex, there should be a high index of suspicion that that kid is being sexually or otherwise abused or, at least, neglected–this is not normal behavior for children of this age! As mandated reporters of child abuse, nurses and other health professionals, as well as educators, have a responsibility to protect that child. Isn’t there a conflict here? Are the kids’ rights to privacy outweighed by the mandate that the adult report? </p>
<p>(this is a copy of the same post in another thread)</p>
<p>In addition to “a kid’s right to privacy,” consider this.</p>
<p>Delware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, and Oklahoma: Allow pregnant teens or teens who have already had a child to get married without parental consent.</p>
<p>Isn’t sex with a female under age 16 statutory rape in most states? (Or is it under 14, I can’t remember, but doesn’t matter). Why in the world wouldn’t they be arresting the men/boys who are having sex with these children and removing them from the equation, rather than giving these girls bc?</p>
<p>I believe so, Bay. I just read something this morning about a 20 yr old BU student who was arrested for molesting (don’t think he raped her, but it wasn’t clear) a 13 yr old he met on Facebook.</p>
<p>He faces at least a year, or more, in jail.</p>
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<p>Um, if it’s, say, two 13 year-olds having sex, why would they arrest the boy but not the girl? Assuming that we’re only talking statutory here - if one forced the other, that’s a different ballgame. But I believe that some states have age clauses where it’s not statutory rape unless the age difference is a certain number of years and one of them is over the age of consent.</p>
<p>Some women take hormonal birth control to control problematic periods, or just to regulate their period in general - I’ve known numerous virgins on the pill. Though I’ve never known a middle schooler to do that.</p>
<p>I would rather middle schoolers not be having sex, but I’d also rather middle schoolers who are having sex not end up with unwanted pregnancies.</p>
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<p>Um, your’e right. The girl should also be subject to prosecution. </p>
<p>I looked up the Maine statute, and sex with a person under the age of 14 constitutes “gross sexual assault” which carries a maximum of 40 years imprisonment. 17-A Sec. 253(1)(B)</p>
<p>That’s right. Two 12-year-olds having sex with one another are not a pair of child molestors in any state I’m aware of. Some states have a bright-line rule (i.e., if A is under 16 and B is over 16, B is committing a crime); others have age difference rules (if A is under the age of consent and B is more than 3 years older than A, B is committing a crime). But two 12-year-olds cannot statutorily rape one another.</p>
<p>While consensual sex between minors is generally not prosecuted, I don’t think it is accurate to say that sex between say, two 12-year olds is not a statutory crime.</p>
<p>Bay: I find that opinion hard to explain logically. Statutory rape is a crime because it is assumed that the older person is using the asymmetry of the age relationship to take advantage of the younger. How could that possible be the case if the sex is between 2 children of the same age?</p>
<p>We might think it’s distasteful and that the kids are too immature for it (I certainly do), but to say it should be criminal is irresponsible, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Perhaps your assumption is inaccurate. The law doesn’t care who is having sex with a 12-year old. Sex with a 12-year-old is a crime. I guess that’s the logic.</p>
<p>Bay, I can say with confidence that the rationale behind statutory rape law is (or should be) - in most jurisdictions - not “sex with a person this age is wrong”, but is based on issues of asymmetry of power, abuse and so forth.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if there are jurisdictions that contend that sex with kids of a certain age is always wrong, there needs to be some rethinking. While I firmly believe that essentially no 13 year-olds are mature enough to have sex, as long as the kids involved are the same, or close to the same age, there is a symmetry of immaturity. At that point it is not morally wrong, merely misguided and problematic, and I would hope that if the relationship were discovered some responsible adult would take action to at least educate the children, but in no way should the matter be criminal.</p>
<p>I volunteer at an inner-city elementary school and we had a pregnant 12 year old last year. I would have hoped that the school nurse had a talk with her (Isn’t someone obligated to approach her?) but due to confidentiality laws, I have no idea what the circumstances were or how she is doing this year. What these kids really need is counseling!</p>
<p>Bay: I’m not an expert on this, but the statutes I have seen don’t say what you say they do. I haven’t looked systematically, but I haven’t seen a statute that would criminalize two 12-year-olds having sex.</p>
<p>This is nothing new, by the way. The average age of initiation of sexual activity has been declining, but not by that much. (And, I think, by less than the average age of menarche for girls has declined, but I may be wrong on that.) There has always been some subset of young girls and boys who have sex. Which isn’t to say that it’s not a problem, just that it’s an age-old problem.</p>
<p>My great-grandfather was 14 when he left home to travel halfway around the world, without his parents (but with his 16-year-old brother, who gave up and turned around), to try and make a better life for himself in America. I am eternally grateful that he did. But he was the age my children were in middle school.</p>
<p>Criminal law is what happens in streets, courtrooms, and jails, not simply words in isolation. Prosecutors and judges are both charged with interpreting the law, and the law means what they say it means. It is very likely that there is a limiting provision elsewhere in the Maine code, case law holding that the statutory rape code does not apply to consensual activity between youngsters of the same age, or both.</p>
<p>I take it back. In Maine, it is gross sexual assault per se to have sexual intercourse with a person under 14. That’s a felony punishable by up to 40 years in prison, although presumably a 12-year-old who committed it would be charged as a juvenile, not as an adult. It’s simple sexual assault if one partner is under 16, but over 13, and the other partner is four years or more older. That’s punishable by up to one year in prison, or five years if the age gap is ten years or more.</p>
<p>I’m not certain what I think of that. If two thirteen-year-olds have sex, that’s a serious felony. If a 23-year-old has sex with a 14-year-old, the maximum sentence is a year.</p>