School working to offer students birth control

By: Beth Winegarner
Examiner Staff Writer
January 8, 2009

A recent increase in teen pregnancy at a Daly City continuation school has prompted a program that may distribute condoms to students. (AP file photo)

DALY CITY — Students at a continuation high school could get condoms on campus under a proposed program that officials hope will reverse a recent increase in teen-pregnancy rates at the school.

After years of decline, rates rose nationally between 2005 and 2006, and local health leaders are seeing similar trends in California and in some schools, including Jefferson Union High School District’s Thornton High School, according to Associate Superintendent Rick Boitano.

District officials are developing a plan that could, by the end of this school year, provide condoms on the continuation campus — which works with at-risk students — along with a counseling session to educate each student who requests prophylactics. If approved, it would be the first time any district school offered condoms to teens at school.

“The results of an unwanted pregnancy are devastating,” Boitano said. “Many of the girls who become pregnant don’t finish school.”
The Jefferson district, based in Daly City, has a population of more than 5,000 students and works with the San Mateo County Medical Center to provide a full-service teen health clinic in the city, according to clinic Director Kim Gillette.

While the center already provides condoms and education to teens, many find it difficult to make the trek, either because they lack transportation or because homework and after-school activities get in the way, Gillette said.

“Teen pregnancies are on the rise, but more teens aren’t able to come to us, so we want to make it easier,” Gillette said.
Already, teen-center staffers are regularly on campus at Thornton, where they offer sex-education programs and work with students regularly. That could make it easier for students to request birth control. “There’s a trust relationship already,” Gillette said.
San Francisco Unified School District has had condom programs in 16 high schools since 1993, and served more than 4,000 students in the 2007-08 school year, according to health Director Meyla Ruwin. Despite national trends, the teen pregnancy rate at the school district has continued to decline — a fact Ruwin said is the result of birth control being available.

“There are some parents who believe by starting [this program] that we would see an increase in sexual activity,” Boitano said. “But studies suggest that by doing this you could decrease activity or delay the onset because it makes kids think.”