Debate wasn’t over on health clinic

The loss of the Health Clinic to some our youth will be a loss. Those kids who have relied on it will hopefully be directed to find the help they need through other avenues. Access to birth control and education have always been ingredients to lively debate of what our kids need to know and when. Parents have differing ways of handling the issue, some parents or guardians do not handle it at all. It brings controversy with regard to what kind of education and where are appropriate places for access to birth control to be provided. Lowering STD rates have to do with so many factors, including the culture that is getting the education.Those who use religion as their only reason to close a clinic fail to consider their tenets of mercy and grace. Those who promote school-based clinics often fail to understand whose children they are educating.The biggest factor in condom failures is when used with alcohol and drugs.

Alcohol and drugs are a much deeper problem in our schools and communities right now then ever before. Peer pressure as with sexual activity has much to do with abuse. It sure did when I was a younger person also. We all know that unless the community is involved, education on drug and alcohol use has not worked well in public education. The Editor of the NK Herald appears to believe because the discussion and debate over the clinic years ago had vocally ended that parents went home and forgot about it.

Some parents and community members went home and were glad their side won. The actual promotion of the health clinic came from within the school district. Some went home and felt the public school overstepped their directive and by co mingling a health clinic with ability to provide not only birth control, but in their views ending a life, went to extremes and lost their trust for evermore. As before as one of the few parents that spoke against the clinic, why was their no consideration for our younger children health needs.

Those who come from homes that do not only not have health care, but at times no one concerned enough to even drive them to get health care. Perhaps it was not PC for the younger ones to have gotten a school based clinic, but the older youth do have the ability to get to places in the county, where our younger children have to rely on adults. Obviously not the adults who supported the Health Clinic at a secondary HS.

Medical experts, moms, dads, family, friends and mentors are what is needed handling the issues of our day. When we started handling our community problems with ideological left and right absolutes, right and wrong got left out of the picture. I sure do not have the answers, but the editor was wrong in the intent of the editorial, some of us felt left out of the solution. We really need all of us.

Mick Sheldon

Kingston

Comment on this story.

COMMENTING RULES: We encourage an open exchange of ideas in our online community, but we ask you to follow our guidelines for respecting community standards. In a nutshell, don't say anything you wouldn't want your mother to read. Please see our FAQ if you have questions or concerns about using Facebook to comment.