null Can condoms be given out to high school students?

Can condoms be given out to high school students?

  • Growing and Developing Healthy Relationships emphasises a positive preventative approach, harm reduction and safer sex strategies which take care not to normalise sexual activity for school-aged students. Abstinence from sexual activity until legal age of consent (16 years +) and capacity for informed decision making is encouraged. 

  • Individual schools are best placed to determine the needs of their students in context with their policies and values.

  • It is important to provide students with the knowledge and skills required to make informed decisions about their sexual health BEFORE they engage in any sexual activity. This may include showing condoms in Health lessons, and allowing students to practice the correct way to put condoms on. 

  • Alternatives to providing condoms to students in schools:

    • access to school health nurses to provide individualised age/stage appropriate information and referral to health services.

    • providing parents with information and links to services that they can refer their children to. (E.g. Condoms and Contraception | Get the Facts and Preparing young people for healthy sexually active lives - Talk Soon Talk Often).

    • providing referrals to locations that provide free condoms (e.g. condom dispensers, condom trees, bowls of free condoms in services, etc) - Find free condoms | Get the Facts.

    • Leaver's events - WA Department of Health provide free condoms that are distributed at events around WA by funded services. Social media campaigns encourage Leavers to pack condoms before events, use condoms, and get tested for STIs if they have had sex.

         

 

 

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