Denver school to offer pupils birth control pills

Students at the Bruce Randolph School in the Northeast of Denver will be offered contraception in an attempt to reduce the amount of pregnancies at the school.

In 2007, a special task forced suggested that clinics in 6 Denver high schools should offer their students contraception due to high pregnancy rates. Out of the 6 schools which were recommended, only 1 school chose to implement the plans.

“Heartbreaking” amount of teenage pregnancies

Students at the Bruce Randolph School will be able to receive condoms and emergency contraception from the school’s clinic as long as their parents have approved them. The school has seen 13 pregnancies in the last 2 years. “That's an incredible number. It is absolutely heartbreaking”, said Bruce Randolph School’s principal Cesar Cedillo.

Offering emergency contraception at schools has unsurprisingly been met with mixed reactions from parents in the community. Some parents believe that providing students with contraception will encourage the teenagers to become more sexually active. Others believe that the move is a positive one, which will see a drop in the amount of unplanned teenage pregnancies in the community.

“Something that parents should handle”

“In the poor neighborhoods, we have a whole generation of kids who are being raised by teen parents who don\'t want their children to go through what we went through”, said parent, Jennifer Gonzalez. “I don\'t want them to have anything to hold them back from their dreams”.

Many people believe that contraception should not be something tackled in schools. “I think that is something that should be handled in the home”, said Marvin Pullom, a teacher at Green Ackers Middle School. “We can educate the children about it but as far as actually taking the step to pass out birth control and prophylactics that’s something the parents should handle”.