The three R's

The Roman Catholic bishop of Springfield protested yesterday the Holyoke School Committee's recent decision to make condoms available to students in grades 6-12, arguing that the school system is ''an endorser and an enabler of early adolescent sex."

''I am profoundly disappointed and disturbed," Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell said in a statement, contending that school officials are reducing sex to ''meaningless self-gratification."

''This decision is, in effect, a millstone around the necks of parents," he said.

Some members of the School Committee, which approved the policy several weeks ago, said they had to act because of the city's high teenage birth rate and high incidence of AIDS. It's unclear how many school systems across the state make condoms available, because the state Education Department doesn't track the policy, a department spokeswoman said. At least one school system, Cambridge, makes condoms available in school health clinics, according to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. [Source]

I guess the three R's are now Rubbers, Rubbers and Rubbers. They seem to understand that to help prevent children from developing lung discease that they educate them to not smoke - instead of providing lung sheaths. Yet went it comes to teenage pregnancy - the only problem is pregnancy and not teenage sex. The Bishop's saying that this is in effect, a millstone around the necks of the parents is exactly right. We also know from similar programs that this program won't reduce teenage pregnancy and even when this program fails they will introduce it to 6-8th graders anyway.

Update: Reader Mark H made the following comment which I thought was excellent.

One can only hope that someday an enlightened society will look back on these 'No Child Left Unsheathed' programs with the same head-shaking as we do now on 'Flat Earth' beliefs.

More people need to point out the foolishness of the condom programs by capitalizing on the contrast with anti-smoking programs. How about we start our own anti-smoking campaign?

-Pass out filtered, low nicotine cigarettes to kids: They're Gonna Try It Anyway, So Give Them Some Protection!

-"Don't give in to peer pressure; when your friends ask you to share tobacco, say 'Only if we use chew.'"

-Set up 'Planned Breathing' clinics, where kids can go for lung treatment without consent from their parents (and to buy all the cigarettes they want, of course; but they'll only talk about the 'health care' part.) After all, the kids have a right to privacy!