Should Seattle schools be giving out birth control unbeknownst to parents?

On the surface, allowing public school nurses to provide birth control looks like a preemptive step to avoid life-changing events.

But is the option to get birth control at school, without a parent or guardian’s knowledge, appropriate?

More than 1,000 high school students and 49 middle school students have discussed birth control with their school health center, KING 5 reports. The program, run by private organizations, allows females to obtain contraception.

The goal is to lower the number of girls dropping out of school because of pregnancy. The amount of contraception actually provided was not released.

KIRO Radio guest host Brian Moote told co-host Tom Tangney outreach efforts should be made to the parents to get them more involved in their children’s lives. By just providing birth control to students without their parent’s knowledge is like “greenlighting” them to go at it, he explained.

“Kids will just say ‘oh, here we go, it’s all safe now,” he said.

At least the program protects students from “the worst,” Tom argued.

But by providing students contraception, they may feel like it’s OK to have sex, Moote countered. The program is shielding kids from having a discussion with their parents. It’s like if kids wanted to box, but without their parent’s knowledge.

“We’re just putting helmets on the kids because we don’t want them to get hurt, but we don’t have a problem with boxing,” he exclaimed.

Why should another one of society’s ills fall on the shoulders of the school district, though? The students probably don’t want to talk to their parents about sex anyway, so at least they have a place to go, Tom said. The program is doing more social good than bad, he added.

It’s hard to argue with the results, however. According to Seattle Public Health for the 15-17 year old group, there was a 92 percent reduction in birth rates between 1990 and 2013, KING 5 reports.