GLOUCESTER, Mass. -- A skyrocketing teen pregnancy rate and a local hospital's reluctance to provide contraceptives to Gloucester High School students has prompted the resignation of two of the school's health officials.

Medical Director Dr. Brian Orr and chief nurse practitioner Kim Daly support giving contraceptives to students, but the reluctance of the town's Addison Gilbert Hospital to distribute birth control drove them to quit, they said.

Gloucester contraceptives

There were 17 pregnancies at the high school this year, when typically there are about four. That spurred clinic director Orr and nurse Daly to move to confidentially give out condoms and birth control pills.

But the hospital, which administers the state public health grant that funds the school clinic, said it was concerned about distributing the pills because of worries over liabilities if students became ill taking the pills.

When Daly and Orr learned they couldn't give out contraceptives without parental consent, they quit.

"The hospital's decision was just actually outrageous and incredible. Birth control pills are not the only answer. We all emphasize that. However, any other program where it's just condom distribution or abstinence-only programs, all those programs do not show the same effects as the comprehensive program that we wanted to copy," Orr said.

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So, here we have people who work with these kids, know what is going on in their lives, more so than their parents, and really, really trying to help them, and they get told to stop. This is ridiculous. Anyone who thinks that kids won't have sex because they are told not to really need to give their head a shake. Kids will do it anyway, so why not educate them and make sure they are protecting themselves, not just from pregnancy but from STDs?

EXACTLY! The only sort of education these kids get are what's in their health class -- and anatomy lessons do not dissuade them from sex. They need to bring in, say, a gynecologist and see what he/she might have to share about the dangers of unprotected sex, rather than say "don't do this, don't do that".

Not only are they going to do what they want, but they most certainly will do what they've been told not to.

There definitely should be some kind of education given to these kids. Seems to me that the school, health officials and parents should have a meeting, weighing both, those for and those against. Agreed glory, that you have two sides pulling in different directions with nothing in the middle. Lets face it, any kid who is told not to do someting is only going to get their interest piqued to try it...

Exactly! Education is the only way to help the teens make the right choices. With the images and attitudes the kids are bombarded with regarding sexuality these days, we need to counter them with education and let the teens make informed decisions.

Unfortunatly I am certified to teach sex ed. Fortunatly for me they do not offer it here in this school system even though it does not matter since I am teaching out of my general field of knowledge ... this year at least.

Places that do not have sex education and provide proper safety tools are only asking for problems. Do these people know if the child is not learning it from the school or their parents ... they are learning it at the lunch table. Just some unjust food for thought.

I know! My niece sure had a few funny ideas about sexual activity because her friends told her them. Usually, the advice that the friends give is totally messed up, and can be dangerous.

I agree with sex education, I work in a Health Dept and it's scary ... the number of STD cases, not to mention the unplanned pregnancies. People think STDs will never happen to them, I just tell them ''Your Health is Your Wealth...Think about it and protect yourself.''