wow, who is calling these children sinners? That is quite a distortion of what most dissenters are saying here.</p>
<p>I agree with SJMom that these children need counselling, not BC. 11-year-olds should be out playing. Maybe the schools need more after-school activities, sports etc. I don’t know. But I sure don’t agree with the BC, especially not pills. If these children are having sex at 11, very likely they are just doing random hook-ups, and not relationships, and the bigger worry would be the spread of STDs. So, pills do what?</p>
Actually, parents can be forced to take better care of their children. That’s what social services are for. And teachers have a duty to report any suspected abuse or neglect.</p>
<p>Today in the Dallas Morning New it was reported that 93% these children know their perpetrator: “Often, it’s a family member. frequently, its another child. Rarely is it a stranger.” Using federal statistics, approximately 1/3 are committed by other children.</p>
<p>The article noted that there was a lot of “high profile” effort to lower what it called “stranger danger” (the 7% where a strangerr is involved) to the kids but that the vast majority of the problem comes from family and school (it also noted that Texas was No. 2 in the Nation in sexual events by teachers).</p>
<p>Get the picture? Only 1/3 of the sexual activity is kid and kid! Most of this is within the family and school environment. The article also noted how families don’t seem to always want to report the offender to the authorities.</p>
<p>Well, from the moral perspective, if they were just engaged in “good” activities they wouldn’t be doing this, right?</p>
<p>So, if 1/3 is kid with kid, that’s all the more reason to treat the problem of child sexual abuse. I don’t get why you keep bringing up the ‘moral’ perspective – I don’t think anyone in their right mind thinks this is a problem with the CHILD’s morality. It is, however, a very serious issue of the perpetrator’s morality.</p>
<p>WHY mention the “moral” perspective? SEE posts 111, 120, 95, 102, 80 , 83 and 90. I agree with you 100% about those in their “right mind” not seeing this as a child morality problem.</p>
<p>In 1/3 of the events, there is no perpetrator (according to Maine law), just two young kids having sex, albeit “illegally,” if too young. Withholding bc when these sexually active kids ask seems counterproductive since mom and dad and the law isn’t stopping them from having sex. At least they will be less likely to have a sexually transmitted disease or be pregnant, even if they go to jail.</p>
<p>Isn’t the issue whether to have bc for kids who ask for it? If they are being sexually assaulted by a family member or teacher or priest and they can’t bring themselves to report them, don’t they need it and shouldn’t it be provided? Maine seems to think so and so do I.</p>
<p>“So, if 1/3 is kid with kid, that’s all the more reason to treat the problem of child sexual abuse.”</p>
<p>Most often an older sibling.</p>
<p>And if you think this is a problem to be handled by the criminal justice system, ask yourself: with hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars paid out by the Catholic Church in admission of guilt for child rape and child sexual abuse, precisely how many priests have gone to prison for it in the last two decades?</p>
<p>“If the parents don’t want their child to have sex, the child shouldn’t.”</p>
<p>I agree. Does that mean that if the child does it anyway, she deserves to get HIV and/or have a baby? Do we deserve to foot the bill for the rest of our taxpaying lives?</p>
<p>As I was driving home from my volunteer job at Planned Parenthood (rather ironic, huh?) I listened to what imho was an interesting discussion about this issue on Talk of the Nation. A member of the school board was part of the panel and there were some interesting incoming phone calls…including from a school nurse from the district who disagreed with the School Board’s decision.</p>
<p>The Baltimore health professional who had been a higher-up in that city’s healthcare program from 1992 to 2005 was very informative.</p>
<p>With 20 years experience in Baltimore with a very similar medical program for public schools, including middle schools, the 45+% drop in teen pregnancies has to be strong proof that it works.</p>
<p>I was surprised that a nurse (a former Portland, Maine HS nurse) would suggest that public healthcare treatment dollars be withdrawn from treating STD’s to fund “interventions” (her word) into the homelife of kids who had sex. Her focus was exclusively on girls and their incurable broken hearts when they give away their precious virginity (once again her words) before marriage.</p>
<p>I was pleasantly surprised that one caller suggested that sex, drug, alcohol, etc education start in 1st grade.(Score one for mini). At least there was a consensus that at really young ages abstinence was advisable.</p>
<p>This idea is just one reason we opted for private schools. There’s no way I could ever be convinced to allow anyone else talk to my 6 or 7 year old child about sex, drugs or alcohol. I wouldn’t even want them talking to my kids about Santa, let alone such profound issues.</p>
<p>I’m with you, sjmom. I blew my top when my son came home from 1st grade telling me that they’d had a talk about drugs. He was so confused, and thought we were druggies because he’d seen prescription vials in our bathroom. Give me a break. We pulled him out the next year.</p>
<p>Perhaps I’m living in an alternative universe (I like it here, and I’m staying), but I’d wager that there are more 9-12. yo who don’t know what sex IS, than are having sex. That’s why this is news–because it is rare and shocking to most of us that middle schoolers would be in need of birth control. Please don’t show my 8yo any condoms. She still plays with dolls and stuffed animals.</p>
<p>dke, atomom, sjmom: I sympathize very much with that. But in schools full of kids without parents as conscientious as you, in schools where violence and drugs may be much more common than where your kids were at school, would you prefer that kids’ innocence be shattered, but they be defended, or that they end up doing drugs and having unsafe sex because they don’t know better?</p>
<p>“I was pleasantly surprised that one caller suggested that sex, drug, alcohol, etc education start in 1st grade.(Score one for mini).”</p>
<p>I was at a meeting where it was reported by a school administrator that two fourth graders (nice, middle class, all-white school district) had been bringing vodka to school in their thermoses daily, and had been for months before they were caught.</p>
<p>“He was so confused, and thought we were druggies because he’d seen prescription vials in our bathroom.”</p>
<p>In our state, in 2006, 6% of 8th graders; 10% of 10th graders; and 12% of 12th graders had used prescription opiates “to get high” at school in the past 30 days. (Significantly higher among white students.) The vast majority of them got the drugs out of their bathroom, or got it from friends who got it out of the bathroom. 4.5% of 8th graders had been drinking and driving (!). We stopped asking the 6th graders about binge drinking, as the school districts didn’t want to know anymore.</p>
07Dad, your heart is in the right place but I think we are dealing with a bigger issue if kids are assaulted sexually by elders. Your solution is to give kids BC so they are continually assaulted ? Isn’t the state of Maine partner in crime ? What kind of solution is that ? Wouldn’t the abusers step up the abuses knowing the girl is on BC, now he can do it just about whenever he wants it? Instead of stocking up on BC pills, the schools or Dept of Social Services should spent $ on a campaign to turn in your abusers. It is OK to tell. Tell a teacher, a councilor if unhealthy things are happening to you outside of your control and your parents aren’t doing anything about it. Things will be done so that you will not be harmed again. That should be the message.</p>
<p>I think that is the point of the confidentiality/privacy that allows the child to get bc within the medical services w/o anyone else knowing. I also don’t know if I believe the adult abuser is all that concerned.</p>
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<p>I think it should be two pronged approach. BC available if requested for those who are too scared to tell. Education to help the really brave kiddos speak up and send a loved one (the literature does indicate that the child does form a sick bond) to jail. </p>
<p>edvest1: You have read these posts. Do you believe that parents who “head to the hills” when the concept of sex, drug and alcohol education at a young age is mentioned are going to tolerate the education that talks about “daddy” touching the child, oral or anal penetration and intercourse?</p>
<p>I’m for EVERYTHING that assists the child. Why do you think that only one aspect should be addressed? Isn’t withholding bc from the child who doesn’t have the courage to come forward just mean-spirited? Should she suffer disease and unwanted pregnancy because at a young age she is too scared? </p>
<p>I wonder if the posters who are male would feel so sure that BC should be withheld if he was an 11 years old girl and facing this horror and afraid that daddy would kill her if she told like he had always said he would. I think the only humane approach is BC and education.</p>
<p>I would appreciate it if you would address why this two prong approach is not appropriate.</p>
<p>Interesting point, 1o42. I put the kids in private school because I didn’t want government mandated programs like this impinging on my right to handle these private matters the way I see fit. I guess if you have a school filled with kids who aren’t being guided or attended to I guess they need it.</p>
<p>The reason I don’t favor your two-prong approach is BC will perpetuate a bad situation. We should encourage, educate kids to go to the counciling center if they suffered sexual abuse. Kids don’t always have to be taken from home, they should be told that. There are ways to fend off the abusers. Learn how to protect one’s self. Find an elder who is sympathetic. Finally the state can step in if all else failed. This is the only real help. To provide BC in order make sexual abuse less messy for the victim to me is not a solution.</p>