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MIRANDA "Turned Upside Down
By Attorney Mark
Stevens
Since the Supreme
Court’s decision in
Miranda v. Arizona in
1966, the Miranda
warnings have
become as American
as baseball.
Read
About Those Presidential
Promises
  By James C. Capretta
Over the past three years, President Barack
Obama made many promises to the
American people about his health care plan.
Among other things, he said it would reduce
the federal budget deficit in coming years,
promote better quality care and improve
access to physicians...more
Gun Control Laws
By Thomas Sowell
Now that the Supreme
Court of the United States
has decided that the
Second Amendment to
the Constitution means
that individual Americans
have a right to bear arms,
what can we expect?
By Evans Lyndon
New Hampshire Herald
Comment on this story
Maybe you sent your ten-year-old granddaughter to school this morning with
turkey on rye, an apple, and a fruit roll-up. You might be worrying that she’ll
have another argument with her best friend or freeze up on the test you
helped her study for last night.

Or perhaps you dropped your nine-year-old nephew off at the bus stop and
made sure he had an extra packet of Kleenex in his pocket in case that pesky
cough kicked in. You might be nervous that he’ll try to make the kids laugh by
putting invisible glue on the teacher’s chair again or that the class bully will
call him chubby in front of his buddies like he did last week.

But did you ever imagine having to worry that the child you dropped off at
elementary school this morning might pick up a free condom between classes?
A Provincetown, MA. School committee on Tuesday June 8, okayed the
distribution of condoms to elementary and high school students as a save
guard towards teen pregnancy. But parents are concerned that the decision
does not give them the right to counsel their kids out of the policy.

Even though the new policy has been greeted with much condemnation from
the public, Peter Grosso, school committee chair, trying to be a little
conservative with the way the policy is administered suggested that the
committee “gives kids opportunity to have instructional conversation with
school authorizes before taking the condoms. But most of the committee
members were worried about the leniency that would have required that
students speak with a school nurse or trained counselor first before receiving
a condom. Dr. Beth Singer, school superintendent argued that since there isn’
t any age limit on the distribution policy, she wanted younger students
requesting condoms receive information on their use. “I don’t like that
students can’t be discreet about this,” said school committee member
Shannon Patrick. “They have to go and ask for it. I’d rather them not have the
conversation [with counselors] and have the condom than not have the
condom.”

“I can see some kids opting out because of the conversation. I’m not against
the policy. I’m just trying to put myself in that teenager’s spot,” said committee
member Carrie Notaro.

Singer said that although sex education is taught in health classes, there isn’t
any detailed instruction on condom usage, including the fact that condoms are
not a 100 percent guarantee against pregnancy or sexually transmitted
diseases.

“We’re talking about younger kids. They have questions they need answered
on how to use them, when to use them,” Singer said. The board voted
unanimously to approve the policy, but what is most  controvercial is the fact
that the policy does not have a minimum age limit and also does explicitly
states that “the school district will not honor requests from parents that
students not be allowed to receive condoms.”

“This decision by the Provincetown School Committee is disturbing and
downright twisted.” A concerned parent lamented. “ The fact that anyone in
our educational system deems it appropriate to provide free condoms to
elementary school children – and to trample on parental rights in the process
– is a complete and utter disgrace. It becomes clearer and clearer why so
many parents home-school their children without a second thought.”
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