Teen

So, you think your kid's high school is progressive? Do they have a Planned Parenthood clinic right on campus? Didn't think so. But Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles does.

Not only that, but the health clinic, which is offered through a partnership between the school district and Planned Parenthood, has been in service for several years, legally providing kids with everything from birth control to physicals. And get this: complaints from parents are rare. RARE. It seems those parents have figured out the secret to all this teen sex stuff.

It's simple really: if your kid is sneaking off to a health clinic to get their birth control behind your back, you haven't done your job. Oh wait, let's back up and close that trap door before the troll sneaks in. Parents do not have to give their kids birth control. They don't have to approve of sexual activity in the teen years. They can even preach abstinence before marriage if that's their thing (I wouldn't advise it, but I'm parenting my kid, you parent yours).

But they do have to do something. You can't stick your fingers in your ears and sing la, la, la when your kids start approaching puberty and still consider it "parenting."

This is what always gets me about the parents who get all up in arms about kids having access to birth control and other reproductive services via their schools. If you've really talked to your child, and you've really instilled your family's particular belief system well, why are you worried? Your child won't be availing themselves of the services at Planned Parenthood or even dipping their hands in a condom jar in the school nurse's office.

The kids who are using health clinics like the one at Roosevelt High should be ones whose parents have made it clear that they NEED birth control if they're going to have sex. And thank goodness for that: because we've all seen on MTV that nothing good comes of teen parenting.

I would love to see a service like the one at Roosevelt at every school in the country. And all the rest of you could pitch a fit that there is a place that's giving your child contraception ... but all you're doing is revealing the fact that you haven't talked to your own child. And who wants to out themselves as a bad parent?

Would this kind of service fly in your community? What kind of access to birth control is there for kids in your neck of the woods?

Image via Daniel Oines/Flickr