A school district in Oregon is so concerned about its teen pregnancy rates that it will start handing out condoms to students, including sixth graders.
Gervais School District board members agreed to make the condoms available after nine girls in the district, grades six through 12, became pregnant this school year, the Statesman Journal reported.
"The decision was made to allow some specified teachers to have condoms that they could distribute after a discussion with the student," Superintendent Rick Hensel told the newspaper.
School officials were alerted to the pregnancies from a study on the issue conducted last year by a group of nursing interns from Oregon Health & Science University. The group found that seven percent of girls at Gervais High School were at one time pregnant.
The OSHU students also found that nearly half of the highs school students they surveyed said they "never" or "sometimes" used protection during sex, the Statesman Journal reported.
The decision to allow the condoms was passed unanimously, but under the condition that the condoms are handed out by trained professionals.
"It is great for parents. I'm a parent of four girls," board member Molly McCarger told KOIN 6. "The conversations have started and they will continue- unfortunately not all of our kids have that support at home."
Officials are still debating whether or not parents will be notified if their child receives a condom, the station reported. The constitution guarantees students the right to privacy, which may prevent parents from finding out.
One parent, Kim Hults, flat out thinks the decision is wrong.
"I just disagree with it. I don't think elementary kids should be around it. I just disagree with it," Hults told the station.
The decision to include the sixth graders was based on the location of the district's junior and high schools, which are 40 feet apart. Hensel said it would have been difficult to include one school in the decision and not the other, according to the New York Daily News.
The condoms will be available starting next fall.
