Students and health care providers said access to birth control in schools is as sensible as putting seat belts in cars, but a pastor said condoms in Denver’s high schools would be a moral step backward.
Thus went the argument before a muted school board Thursday — whose members chose not to discuss the controversial issue and instead directed district staff to examine the recommendation.
A task force’s eight recommendations to improve student health include making birth control available in health centers in high schools — with the principal and community advisory committee’s permission.
Steve Federico, director of Denver Health’s school-based health centers, said the recommendation is a way to cut the teen pregnancy rate.
Students are having sex but don’t use contraception because it is too expensive and hard to access, said several high school students who appealed to the board to approve the recommendation.
Birth control should be provided in the health centers where students get most of their medical services, they said.
“I want there to be easy access,” said Vivie Duclos, a 17-year-old senior at Denver School of Science and Technology. “It will promote safety. I really don’t think that kids are going to say, ‘Oh, my God, they are handing out condoms. Let’s go have sex.'”
Marianna Lopez, a student at Abraham Lincoln High School, said teens already having sex should be protected.
“Please open your eyes and look around you,” she said.
But the Rev. Randolph C. West of St. Stephen Missionary Baptist Church said giving students birth control gives tacit approval to bad behavior.
The district does not permit drugs or guns on campus, so why should it allow birth control, he asked.
“There are some things that ought not to be tampered with,” he said. “We should not open that door.”
Jim Pfaff, president of the Colorado Family Institute, urged the board to refuse the recommendation.
“It gives the message to children that sexual activity is OK,” he said. “I know that’s the message you don’t want to send.”
