To be quite sad about this...

[EvilTwins]

Whilst teaching my Yr 9 Drama class today, I noticed that one of the girls had a nasty looking bruise on her inside upper arm. I commented, and asked how she'd done it. She replied "implant" and showed me.

Am I just being a middle aged prude, or is 13 too young for a contraceptive implant?

AIBU to have been a bit shocked and really quite sad?

well she might have really heavy periods or some other hormonal problem you don't know about

13 is too young to be having sex, but lots of kids do it, would you rather she was having sex without contraception though?

I'd rather see a 13-year-old with an implant than pregnant.

My sister used the pill aged 14 to help regulate periods and heaviness but I don't think Implanon is recommended for that

Didn't realise that implants help with heavy periods.

Yes, of course I'd rather she was safe, but an implant seems so full on. I suppose it avoids her forgetting to take the pill, though.

Hope she's using condoms too - STDs and all that.

How can you be a yr 9 teacher and be shocked by that?

Surely that is pretty common and you must have see it before unless you are a very green and new teacher?

You're not being a prude, but as ByThesea said, much better an implant than a pregnancy.

I agree it could be for periods or something - my sister didn't have any when she had he implant. Perhaps they've already tried everything else.

An implant can reduce heavy, painful periods in some cases.
Maybe the girl isn't able to take the pill to help with periods because the pill contains oestrogen.
Not fair to assume she's sexually active if you don't know.

Probably as already said due to nasty periods.

Well there we go. I stand corrected. May well be for nasty periods.

I'm not a new teacher - I've been at it for 12 years. I've obviously been living happily in a rose-tinted haze all these years...

I wish it had been around in my day and that I was allowed by my mother to do something about my periods at the age of 13 instead of years of suferring

If you're concerned ET you could ask her.

You never know though EvilTwins, she might be having sex. You could maybe ask her in a casual manner, have no clue who you could do that though. Maybe get the class to write a script for a play on teenage pregnancy? To kind of outline the importance of condoms too.

Big push within the NHS to give girls the implant or injection.

StephsFamous

Great, totally humiliate the girl and highlight her issues to all her classmates

they will have access to a school nurse and get Sex Ed in PSHE lessons....which I am hoping presuming Eviltwin does not teach and is well aware of her own limitiations.

Ladyanonymous
Of course I didn't mean "Hey kids, XXX has had an implant so we're gonna do YYY to show her how to behave!"
Teenage pregnancy is a major issue and I believe teaching kids how to be safe is the way forward.
A play on how a girl got pregnant or caught an STI is a perfectly reasonable idea, the children in my sisters year are already working on something similar.

Ditto the above:

1 - could be for hormonal issues, nasty perdiods, etc

2 - better ah implant than pregnant, and schoolgirls are notorious for forgetting pills or lending them to a friend (because if you take a pill that day you can't get pregnant )

I agree with the implant better than pg but if she is having sex at 13yrs old surely whoever she is sleeping with is committing statutory rape?
I really, really hope it is something to regulate her periods

Slightly surprised that a Year 9 teacher could be shocked by a 13 year old having contraception. The long lasting reversable contraceptions (implanon, mirena, pill injection) are pushed really hard as an alternative to the pill for teenagers nowadays.

It is likely that she is using this to regulate her periods (my 14 year old dd has been on the pill for 4 months to stop hideously heavy periods, it has changed her life, she has a 3 day period now as opposed to a 12 day painful one). However if she is having sex, it is a good thing that she is using contraception rather than chancing pregnancy.

Stephysfamous

I was just trying to point out that there are designated people within school to deliver this kind of thing and specific training to do it properly.

Other young people may have noticed the girls implant too or may know about it through tittle tattle and to tackle the issue on the back of this even though - obviously - she would remain anonymous could be a little insensitive.

By doing it badly more harm than good could be done.

There is A LOT of work being done within school to tackle these issues.

I suppose I was more shocked by the actual implant in one so young than the fact that she may be having sex - I'm not that naive. I was just surprised that a child so young would be given something so, well, obvious. I don't imagine I'm the only one who's seen it, and I know very well how quick teenagers are to brand girls slappers. I was on the pill aged 15 for awful irregular periods, and I didn't realise that implants can help that.

We do cover issues like relationships and so on in Drama - but never in a "hey kids, xxx is obviously having sex so let's do a play about what a bad idea it is" kind of way.

I'm not going to do anything about it - it can hardly have been done without her parents' knowledge and/or approval.

I just thought it was a bit sad, that's all -that any 13 year old would want that.

BTW, ladyanonymous - not much special training for delivering sex ed. Many do it as form tutors. I certainly have in the past. I've been off with my own kids for 3 years though, so don't know how much/if things have changed since then. In my school, though PSHE is not delivered by specialist teachers.

One of my year 9s is pregnant.

In the schools I work in all these things (sex ed/drugs & alcohol etc) are delivered by specialist outside agencies or the school nursing team and are part of extended services.

Obviously we work under different education authorities!!