San Francisco school officials debate offering condoms to middle schoolers

Condoms for middle school students?  That’s the proposal San Francisco Unified School district officials are set to consider at their school board meeting Monday night.

The program is being introduced by Superintendent Richard A. Carranza. 

Under the proposal, condoms would be made available to students in the district’s 23 middle schools; however the San Francisco Examiner reports that students would be required to meet with a social worker or school nurse before taking part in the program.

A nurse practitioner who works with adolescents told KTVU, "I think it's pretty clear that giving kids access to condoms doesn't actually make them do things they wouldn't do otherwise. It offers them protection if they're going to have sex and be at risk of getting a disease or getting pregnant."

The idea of making condoms available to students is not a new one for San Francisco unified; the district's had a condom availability program in place for high school students since 1993.

The school board meeting starts Monday night at 6 p.m. at district headquarters and members of the public will be allowed to comment during that meeting.