Why would you NOT want a sexual health drop in clinic in school?

How on earth would the existence of the STD clinic account for the outbreak of the STDs?

Year 9 is about the stage of the onset of puberty for a lot of boys. They would have got the clap with or without the clinic in existence.

My DCs went to a school that had a clinic. The clinic was basically the school nurse's office, which was on a section of the second floor of the building where there were several admin offices. You could drop by at lunch or before school or after school up to 5 pm. Students could make an appointment via email or phone or text. The nurse office liaised with other social services available in the school such as the counselling office and also with local social service providers and of course the school was a statutory reporter for suspected abuse of all kinds. There were no lockers nearby and no classrooms or lunch rooms.

Made no difference to the DCs' behaviour or to the behaviour of any other teens as far as I could see. Those who came from families where supervision was lax and where parents let the children out until all hours at night, who didn't expect their children to go to school to work and get good grades ended up engaging in risky sexual behaviour. The other category of children who engaged in risk-taking of a sexual nature were those from over-strict homes who did it to rebel or because they were too used to accepting the authority of a male figure and trusting anyone who said they would take care of things. Sadly, the girls from these homes often were the ones who ended up pregnant. However, luck for them, the nurse's office was there when they needed a pregnancy test and someone to accompany them if they felt it necessary to have moral support when telling their parents.

Parents who are up in arms about outside influences are usually parents who have managed to alienate their children all by themselves through their fear- based militancy and stridency. If your children are going to be so easily led astray that the existence of a std clinic or one offering sexual health services is going to drive them into the arms of seduction then you have not been a very effective parent.

Yes of course silly me, people purposely get STD's to get antibiotics....

It sounds like a good idea.

I'm not twisting words at all. Why on earth would almost half of Y9 boys be treated for STDs if they hadn't contracted them in the first place? I don't see how else her words could be interpreted, really. Perhaps someone could elucidate?

(Or maybe you think I was inferring that the outbreak occurred immediately after the clinic opened. Well, I wasn't. I was simply remarking on the extraordinarily high rate of STD infections despite - or, just possibly, because of - the existance of a sexual health clinic on the school site.)

How did ghost say it coincided, she said they treated it. Talk about twisting words and adding on things....

"My school had one.
It was an absolute godsend......

....They also did STI tests and treatments. They had to treat nearly half of the lads in year 9 at the start of the year, after the summer holidays. "

So, in your experience, the provision of a sexual health clinic in a school coincided with a huge outbreak of STDs in 13-year-olds?

(How do you know this, anyway? No confidentiality issues here?)

No cavell, not in other words no.

More like the kids knew they wouldn't get bullied for going, because even the 'popular' kids had sexual health worries. It put everyone on equal par.

You can twist it to whichever way you want to back up your own beliefs, but it wasn't like that at all.

I'm a person who benefited from having a sexual health clinic in my school, among with hundreds of others. It isn't about what you want. It's about what these kids need. They're going to do it regardless, we did it before the clinic came along. But the clinics make it safer, so much so.

they don't like the idea of teens being sexually active

Of course not, but this is the reality. So you have to deal with it.

Preferably at home! And also in school.

How about teaching children that they have autonomy over their own (mind &) body...!

If only from a health point of view, I think this is a good idea.

Strange how in almost 2013 most a lot of people still cannot deal with sex education in a down-to-earth way... While a rampant sexualised society is all around us.

Apart from HIV etc. and related info, isn't UK one of the world's highest teenage pregnancy rates?

Why would you want to perpetuate that?

If people can drop in to a clinic and get confidential Sexual Health info in all its facets, only a good thing in my view.

not sure how it can be confidential having it in a school tho

"No-one was ashamed of going in my school. Probably because the 'popular kids' went. "

In other words, the provision of such services on site not only pressurizes children into seeing underage sex as something that they are virtually expected to indulge in... but that it is what the cool, popular kids do? So that it is pretty much something to aspire to? Awful.

I hope the point that you're also taking on board, is that that people who might not think it's a great idea, are not ultra-conservatives who are aghast at the idea of teen receiving advice or contraception, as this is not the case. It's not simply people objecting because they don't like the idea of teens being sexually active, or that they want to sweep the problem under the carpet. Rather, it's people describing how much pressure there is already on teens to think that sex is normal and something everyone does already, and how these sorts of clinics at school would have increased that perception. It's not in any way suggesting that under-age sex doesn't happen, or that there should not be plenty of advice and contraception available, merely that people could underestimate the effect that peer pressure has on teens who wouldn't otherwise be wanting to be sexually active, by making them feel abnormal and out of step with their peers. There are two different populations that are affected - those who are sexually active and need advice and contraception, and those who are not but might become so, simply because of the constant pressure to act like everyone else, who appear (from media and elsewhere) to all be having sex. I think it is easy to forget this second group, or to dismiss those who have concerns about a clinic as simply being out-of-touch, conservative, closed-minded about sex, etc., when that is not always the case.

i live in Bristol it is quite a big city with a brook (open everyday for drop in), bristol sexual health service clinc (again open everyday for drop in), Drs that do swabs and in every single part of Bristol there is at least 2 clinics a week. I still say in school would be much better with nurses trained specifically for teens would be so much better.

Plus we're in a city, so plenty of other places to go.

That's quite interesting. I suppose it wouldn't be the same everywhere though. I get the impression it wouldn't work in my own DC's school. The gossip mill is ferocious.

Inneed - same here! But like you said, if we were grounded we were done for! Or if we had got detention after school.

We all went to brook to, in massive groups. It wasn't a big deal but it would of been better being in the school.

cross posted again ha.

Seriously, most teens arent ashamed of things like this. If they need the help they'll go and get it. I'm now 21 and not much has changed according to my younger brother who has just left the same school. A lot of them seemed to show off about going to be honest.

Of course having it in school makes it more accessible. What about teens that have been grounded but desperately need MAP or such like and cannot tell their parents.

Annunziata - the whole point is to make it not a big deal to go. Introducing the clinic through a general sex ed lesson. No-one was ashamed of going in my school. Probably because the 'popular kids' went.

Oops- cross posts with GhostShip. I'm honestly really surprised that so many of them went!

Before we had this place, we'd have to catch the bus after school to go to the brook advisory centre. which wasnt reliable, but a chance at that age we took.

I don't think putting it in a school makes it easily accessible though. Everyone knows where people sit for lunch, in a small school, and if you're not in Maths the day that the clinic happens to run, well, everyone will know where you are, won't they? So you wouldn't go.

I like the buckets of water idea

My school had one.

It was an absolute godsend. I truly believe it prevented many teenage pregancies, as well as educating us at the same time.
It's easy for kids to go get condoms, but not that they will. These places give the information as well as free contraception.
Ours also give the morning after pill.

They also did STI tests and treatments. They had to treat nearly half of the lads in year 9 at the start of the year, after the summer holidays.

I agree OP Iv'e read the replys and I still cannot understand why you would not want a health clinic in school.