CPS To Distribute Free Condoms At 24 Schools Next Year
By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 20, 2014 7:40PM
A federally-funded pilot program to reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases rates among young people will expand to two dozen Chicago public high schools in the coming school year. The “Action Plan for Healthy Adolescents” is funded by a five-year, $20 million grant and already allows city health officials to distribute free condoms at 476 locations across Chicago.
The condoms may not reach the selected high schools soon enough. Chicago Public Schools Chief Health Officer Stephanie Whyte testified before the City Council Health and Education Committees Wednesday that 52 percent of CPS high school students have engaged in sexual intercourse; fewer than 18 percent have four or more sexual partners in their brief lifetimes. Whyte added 35 percent of those sexually active students have not used contraceptives in the past month.
CPS will work with the City Health Department to determine which high schools will receive the condoms but ultimately it will be up to the school’s principals to determine whether the condoms will be distributed.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel conceded the program’s expansion into high schools is necessary given the reality of modern life.
“It’s an acknowledgement of what’s happening, whether you did that or not. It’s…an attempt to deal, from a health care perspective, [with] both pregnancy as well as socially-transmitted diseases,” Emanuel told an unrelated news conference about crime.“I respect it as a pilot. But, I want everybody to understand that doesn’t mean you’re absolved — either as a parent or an adult — to talk to an adolescent about responsible behavior, respecting who you’re with and doing what’s right, not what’s convenient.”
City Health Commissioner Dr. Bechara Choucair said the program is only one facet of educating high school students before deciding to have sex.