Editor,

I am truly shocked and concerned about the Portland School Board’s decision to hand out birth control to middle school children in Portland.

What happened to teaching morals, teaching abstinence, or teaching a healthy lifestyle? Birth control pills do not protect children from the horrific sexually transmitted diseases and I doubt 11- and 12-year-olds will know that as they take the pretty 28-day package to pop one a day.

Do not tell me this is the “Leave it to Beaver” mindset and that I am in a dream world. If parents or guardians would live up to the moral standing of days gone by, this would not be happening.

Look how far we’ve slid downward with “political correctness.” What a joke! I am not putting on blinders. I am speaking truth! It is disgusting that seven people on a school board committee decided that it is OK for kids to take their young precious lives into their own hands.

Oh wait – after talking to the liberal-minded, politically correct, fancy-talking nurse – who will convince them what a great idea it is, it’s an open door to younger sexual activity.

Are we idiots or what?

Okay, so mommy and daddy are supposedly not teaching the kids that they shouldn’t have sex – and it is clear that the schools aren’t (oh, but why not?) – so let us then pass out this free-of-charge arsenal to impressionable children. Yes, that is definitely the way to go. Let’s face it, one step further to Hell thanks to our trusted committee members who passed this abominable “right.” And for those of you who passed it because it was a political decision, may it haunt you daily.

It’s strange how the definitions of “protection” and “education” and “responsibility” have become so twisted. If the school system really want to protect the next generation, they would pass out educational materials and discussions on the dangers of sex – both physical and psychological – as well as have classes on why not to have sex (you know – “just be a kid”!). However somehow the weak-minded and the warped have made sex an act that is inevitable – even among the youngest – so let’s just smile and hand them a pill. That has become the “responsible” way to bring up the next generation.

Many of us can only hope and pray that the same slippery-tongued debauchery does not come to our school districts.

Crystal Miller

Hiram