evenow

An 11 year old may not be ready, but they do have sex. I would rather an 11 year old take their risks with birth control than childbirth. I can't imagine what having an abortion or going through with a pregnancy would do to such a young body/mind.

Sometimes no matter how good a parent you are, the children are going to do stupid stuff. I think the ability to protect themselves from making that stupid stuff life-changing (pregnancy, stds, etc) is important. Involving the parents would be great, if the parents would be effective role models and assist the kids. That isn't necessarily the case with every family. A child may be denied the ability to get birth control by parents that believe that leads to sexual activity, while unaware that the child plans on continuing the sexual activity they are already doing, just without protection.

I'm not sure if it is too big of a responsibility for an 11 year old. At that age you're responsible for many daily routines. True, preventing pregnancy shouldn't be one of them, but I don't think taking a daily pill other than a vitamin would be overwhelming.

And I think this doesn't impact as many children as it sounds. If 5/134 children are sexually active (some may have been to embarrassed to admit it) then it sounds like the schools are making efforts to reach out to the small percent that may be at risk for pregnancy and early drop out rates. I'm not sure how this effects the school's bottom line--the article's focus was elsewhere.