Youth / OPINION : Norplant: ‘A Green Light for Sex?’

TERI STEIN

Senior, 17, Harvard-Westlake School

“A tisket, a tasket, a condom or a casket.”

I see this bumper sticker every day on my way to school on the back of a white Mazda Miata. I do not know the driver, but I wish I could thank her for catching the eyes of teen-agers like myself, for reminding us that unprotected sex is increasingly fatal. If school officials know that students are not practicing safe sex, they should be more concerned with saving lives than with preventing new ones. It is only through the distribution of condoms with (the spermicide) nonoxynol-9 that schools can effectively encourage students to protect themselves. If a women chooses to use an additional contraceptive, such as Norplant, that is her prerogative. But for school officials to tell female students, who run a higher risk of contracting AIDS than their male counterparts, that they are “safe” because they are using Norplant is a gross misuse of educational power. Female students must be offered condoms in order to practice safer sex.

School officials are obviously trying to acknowledge the amount of sexual activity on their campuses, but the credibility of their efforts is marred by blatant sexism. Young women are taught that they, and they alone, are responsible for preventing pregnancy, and that their irresponsibility is their own burden. In addition, the selection of Norplant as the contraceptive of choice is an unrealistic one.