Shock! Horror! Condoms in public schools!

[Miss Philicia]

I wonder if they do this in Texas...

linky

Coming over the holiday break to about a third of Philadelphia high schools: clear plastic dispensers chock-full of free condoms.

The dispensers will be placed in the 22 high schools whose students had the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases, and condoms will be available to any student - so long as their parents did not sign a form opting them out of the program.

It's a pilot designed to address "an epidemic of sexually transmitted disease in adolescents in Philadelphia," said Donald F. Schwarz, the deputy mayor for health and opportunity. Since April 2011, the city has given away about four million condoms, and now, STD rates are falling.

But, Schwarz pointed out, 25 percent of new HIV infections in Philadelphia are teens, and that's a major worry.

[Anqueetas]

I glad they do something right, clearly teaching abstinence is not working like it should.

[Miss Philicia]

Seriously, they should do this in every public school, not to mention extensive needle exchange programs. That last bit has always really infuriated me. When I was on Fuzeon I used this non-needle delivery system and would donate all of my unused syringes secretly to this place downtown. They had to give them out on the DL.

[Mrmojorisin]

Seriously, they should do this in every public school

Agreed...it is stupid to think they will not have sex because of you tell them not to..look at how well "just say no to drugs" is working

, not to mention extensive needle exchange programs. That last bit has always really infuriated me. When I was on Fuzeon I used this non-needle delivery system and would donate all of my unused syringes secretly to this place downtown. They had to give them out on the DL.

They shouldn't have to do this on the sly....

[Miss Philicia]

Agreed...it is stupid to think they will not have sex because of you tell them not to..look at how well "just say no to drugs" is working They shouldn't have to do this on the sly....

I think where I live IV drug use is something like a third of all new infections, so it's not at all insignificant. The NIH has long lobbied for Congress to approve this but it never, ever happens. I mean can you honestly see our Teabaggin'-infused House of Representatives vote for that one? It wouldn't even make it out of committee.

[mecch]

Free condoms - great idea.  A lot of bang for the buck invested by who ever is footing the bill.

Hard to believe that this is possible in do-as-i-say-not-as-i-do "Amercia" so it's wonderful to hear that it is!

[Miss Philicia]

Taxpayers are paying for this via the Philadelphia Dept. of Health, not the state one. But we're also a metropolitan area that, for the past two years, has participated in some new CDC "enhanced comprehensive HIV planning" -- you can read about it here. I honestly don't know all of the details besides the fact that it exists, so maybe it's partly funded by the CDC and federal money.