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Brooklyn High School Handing Out Condoms At Prom: "Right Thing To Do"
By
Ben Yakas
Published May 25, 2012
Modified May 25, 2012
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By
Ben Yakas
Published May 25, 2012
Modified May 25, 2012
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A Brooklyn high school is planning to distribute condoms at prom next month, which has sparked a classic debate: does giving condoms to kids mean you're encouraging them to have sex? The school's principal doesn't think so: “This is necessary,” Bedford-Stuyvesant Preparatory High School principal Darryl Rascoe told the Daily News. “It’s practical and it’s the right thing to do.”
Rascoe, who has been principal at the 130-student school for three years, says he was motivated to give out the prophylactics to kids at their June 7th prom as a way to stem the tide of teen pregnancies at the school: “There are several kids in our school who already have children,” said Rascoe. “We’re fooling ourselves if we think we can leave this up to teams to be proactive.”
Rascoe added that there will be a safe sex assembly program leading up the prom. The Department of Education says schools have long been permitted to distribute condoms to students (even though usually it happens in the nurse's office). The condoms will be provided by Long Island-based company NuVo, who said in a statement that they aren't promoting teen sex, but rather "would like to make sure that all students are safe and protected" by offering them for free. And if one of these kids gets lucky and forever associates NuVo's product line with the greatest night of his adolescent life, well, that's just the popped cherry on top.
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Bedford-Stuyvesant Preparatory High School
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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