My reaction? YES!!!
I'm celebrating a bold move: According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 4.5 percent of high schools in the country make condoms available to students. That means MPS is taking a leap.
I'm not going to get into the details of the Board of Education's decision, which was reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, MPS approves condom giveaways. You can read about the technicalities on news sites.
Instead, I'm going to speak for those girls who, like me, got pregnant before they grew up.
Girls like Jane (whose name has been changed to protect her identity), a young family friend who became a mom before she could become her own person.
No regrets, believe it or not
A lot of people believe teenage parenthood automatically leads to a life of doom and gloom.
Not me.
In my case, becoming a parent at 18 — thankfully, after I graduated high school — was a great experience. But I'll be frank: I was fortunate.
I was fortunate because my baby daddy wanted to be a full-time father, husband and bread winner, at the ripe old age of 19.
I was fortunate because our 'rents wanted to be supportive grandparents, giving their time, energy, advice and money to the cause.
I was fortunate because I had enough scholarships, grants and loans to afford college tuition and on-campus married housing. (Thanks to growing up poor and being a geeky studious chick in high school, I was flush with student aid.)
I was fortunate because I was healthy, physically, emotionally and mentally. And so was my child.
I was fortunate, in other words, because I had all the resources a parent of any age needs: a partner parent, relief pitchers (the 'rents), a steady income, good health, and opportunity.
Take any of those resources away, and the job gets exponentially harder. Take them all away, and it becomes nearly impossible. Just ask Jane.
Mom and baby are holding on
Jane's baby daddy isn't in the picture. We can ponder the reasons why and debate ways to make him step up ... but, in the meantime, Jane's baby doesn't have a dad. And Jane doesn't have a partner. That's reality.
Jane doesn't know her own father and mother. Again, we can ponder the reasons why and debate ways to make them step up ... but, in the meantime, Jane's baby doesn't have grandparents. And Jane doesn't have relief pitchers. That's reality.
Jane lost her scholarship to college because school proved too much for her. We can debate ways to make her step up ... but, in the meantime, Jane had to go to work instead of college. That's reality.
Jane suffers from an affective disorder that requires medication, which she had to stop taking while pregnant and nursing. That's cold, hard reality.
We're a dime a dozen — but worth more
Between me and Jane, in the spectrum of experiences that are better and worse than ours, you'll find countless teenage mothers in Milwaukee.
You've undoubtedly heard that Milwaukee is among the 10 worst cities the nation in terms of teenage pregnancy rates and sexual disease transmission, although in 2008 the city recorded its lowest teen pregnancy rate in 30 years.
According to a fact sheet circulated by MPS during the discussion about condom distribution, the "2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) showed that 25% of MPS high school students have had four or more partners, and 42% have had sexual intercourse with one or more people in the last three months. Additionally, 39% did NOT use a condom during their last sexual encounter."
This survey indicates nearly half our high-schoolers are having sex. And nearly half of those sexually active teens aren't using condoms. An understatement: Wow!
We can ponder the reasons why and debate ways to make them step up ... but, in the meantime, they are having children. That's reality.
Normally, this would be the point where I'd try to provide an explanation. After all, that's what we journalists do: We hunt for the "why."
I couldn't tell you why I didn't use a condom back in the day. I was a different person back then. I was a child. I suppose it was just too much: It would have required advanced planning, cash, patience and a firm grasp on reality ... all of which are in short supply among teens.
But today I'm not interested in the why. Today I'm interested in "how" — as in, how do we stop babies from having babies?
Handing condoms to teenagers won't solve the problem. We all know that. It does seem to help, however, if you believe a study published in the American Journal of Public Health, Condom Availability Programs in Massachusetts High Schools.
Says the study: "Condom availability was not associated with greater sexual activity among adolescents but was associated with greater condom use among those who were already sexually active, a highly positive result."
In my opinion, if handing out condoms here in Milwaukee helps just one girl grow up before she gets pregnant, we've achieved our own highly positive result.
