The left wing here has embarassed me before, but this is downright shameful. And mind you, the law prevents the schools from telling the parents of kids this age that they are doling out contraceptives. This is irresponsibility at a new level and reminds me again of the world TEC stands for, a world in which the only standard is no standard. The old Maine, the real Maine, isn’t like this, but it is dying under the heavy footstep of the rich outtastater who controls the legislature and the governor. LM

Maybe they should also set up an area where the kids can try this out in a “safe” environment?

All I can think of is how in the late 1960s, college-age women obtained birth control pills from the family physician by claiming the need to treat irregularities or discomfort in their monthly cycle.  Now, 11-year-old middle-schoolers can just get them from the school nurse.  Of course, “it has been shown, over and over again, that this does not increase sexual activity”, as the NYT version quotes.
So it’s great progress, I guess….if that’s what one considers progress…...My God.

Last monday, I send a 29 year old woman to a nursing home with a major stroke that made her completely unable to use the right side of her body, speak, or understand speech.  She had failed Rehab, and never regained the ability to dress herself, or toilet herself independently.

Her only risk factor was the use of birth control pills.  (never smoked, no high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, no blockages in either heart or carotids).

People forget that Vioxx was taken off the market for its risk of stroke, but that birth control pills have three times the risk of strok that Vioxx has.

What happens when one of the children is adminstered a medication or has a medical procedure that otherwise would have been contraindicated had the prescribing physician known that the child was on the Pill?

from here

ACLU Sues Middle School Over Birth Control Pills
by Scott Ott

(2007-10-18) — The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today filed suit against King Middle School in Portland, Maine, over a new policy to distribute birth control pills to 12-to-14 year-old girls without parental notification.

“Like all Americans, the ACLU is shocked,” said an unnamed spokesman for the civil rights group. “Birth control pills have no place in our government-run, taxpayer-funded schools, because they’re only useful for girls engaged in heterosexual activity. Distribution of the pill is inherently discriminatory, favoring one sex and one particular sexual preference.”

An unnamed school spokesman said an out-of-court settlement may be in the works.

“The ACLU has told us they would drop the suit,” the source said, “if each prescription of birth control pills included a label instructing students that heterosexual activity is just one of many options available to young teens and pre-teens, and directing them to visit the school library to investigate the full range of sexual opportunities.”

In California where we have a strict law against any notification of parents of their children’s contraceptive use or abortions; parents get to pick up the pieces, both emotionally and health wise.  I once had a suicidal teenage client who was contemplating her fifth or sixth abortion.  It was at that point that my client finally informed her poor distressed mother about her abortion history.

“heterosexual activity is just one of many options available to young teens and pre-teens”  Such as homework? Attending class? Honoring their father and their mother?

I really wanted to comment here.  But I just can’t seem to come up with anything that would not involve the use of language I picked up in the Navy.  Moving on…

A commentator on TV (I was switching channels so don’t remember who) stated that anyone who gives birth control to an 11 year old should be arrested for ‘contributing to the delinquency of a minor’, and ‘accessory to statutory rape’.

Talk about sexist policies. The schools are going to facilitate 11 year old girls being raped, but are apparently going to do nothing to chase down the male rapists. (And probably, like Planned Parenthood, order that the male rapists be protected under confidentiality rules.)
    I retired early from teaching in public schools partially because I realized the public schools in our nation are becoming anti-Christian, valueless cesspools of virtual child abuse. Only once in a while does the actual degeneracy of what is going on hit the liberal MSM—which will probably quickly drop the issue lest it cause an uprising among parents against the liberal agenda. It will be interesting to see if the MSM harps away at Portland the way it did about the few places that wanted “Intelligent Design” discussed as one theory among many in science classrooms.

When is enough enough? When are parents going to start protecting their children by taking them out of the public schools? My God, the well being of their children is a parents absolute first responsibility!

Many parents (wrongly) feel that they have no choice.  Some states still make it very difficult process-wise to homeschool, and church or private schools are, unfortunately, beyond some parent’s financial reach.  (although more are offering scholarships.) 

And in most states that have tried vouchers, the NEA gets their lawyers in to make sure that they are not used for religious based schools, under the mythical “separation” clause.

The only course I can see is for more caring parents to run for seats on the school boards.  Although in one case where they won, the ACLU and NEA again stepped in and stopped many of their measures from taking effect, again under the separation clause.

I repeat, the welfare of their children is the parents FIRST responsibility. It comes before a bigger home, a nicer car, more stylish clothes, dining out or anything else. In short, it means many sacrifices for most parents. But, when you have children, the welfare of those children are the parents first priority and responsibility regardless of the difficulties and sacrifices necessary. And no, it won’t be as easy, but it will certainly be more satisfying.

To be a Mainiac at this moment is mortifying. Well, I will go to my congressman, but the liberals control the Maine legislature and have for about 30 years. This is all liberal horse…............well, I won’t say it because the elves will whump me. Just think of all the damage the liberal agendas have done in the last 50 years!
Liberal reminds me, one of the guys on my class list serve said he saw a T-shirt on a baby that said,
“Now I’m safe, I’m pro-choice.” Larry

My boss just told us that she’s in favor of this—that the alternative of having an 11 year old get pregnant is worse than giving out the BC pills.

LJ, my wife just said the same thing. On the surface, this seems logical if what you are measuring falls under situational ethics. (Do you remember when this book came out and everyne used the phrase to justify doing whatever you felt like? ) But the problem lies in an 11 year old having sex at all. Will contraceptives teach her that her acts have serious consequences, or will she learn that there is always a way around consequences. When we make a misstep, we should stumble; this is how we have learned and will learn. The school’s lesson is the obverse: We can teach you how to learn that you have not taken a misstep because you did not stumble. And this, ladies and gentlemen, falsifies life at its most basic. My God, a public school. This is as shameful as it is false and dishonest. For a school to lie about the very essence of learning is a deep betrayal of a trust. LM