Wednesday, April 29, 2009

NEWS: School Enforces Parental Consent, ACLU is Pissed

*Posted March 15, 2009*

While I'm on my conservative soapbox, let's get this out of the way. In San Diego, a school district recently overturned a policy that allowed students to leave school during the deal medical appointments (including drug treatment, abortions, etc.) without parental consent. The ACLU is up in arms and claims this is a violation of state law. I think they are retarded, but let's look at the case further.

The rule used to be, according to CA state law, that students could leave school without parental consent to deal with sexual, mental, substance abuse or reproductive health issues. Some doctors thing the impact of overturning this could be bad for kids "who would rather die than tell their parents." Hmmm, if kids are are involved with drugs or pregnancy while in high school, maybe they aren't responsible or mature enough to handle going to the doctor by themselves. This raises safety issues about the school letting minors leave without notifying their parents, but it also raises compentancy issues from believing a kid can manage the biggest problems in his life alone.

But let's consider the loony left's position. They would love to point out that if a student is getting abused at home, it would be wrong to notify the abusive parents that the kid is essentially ratting them out. But if the kid told the school about abusive parents, then the doctor's appointment shouldn't be confidential anyway because the cops and social services would get involved. The other claim I read that kids are too scared to tell their parents about STDs or drug use, all I can say to the kid is tough shit. How about we let the school decide what is best for the students while they are at school, and let the parents decide what is best for their children when they are outside of school? Sounds simple doesn't it?

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