I wonder if the kids whose parents did that could have sued the parents if they got an STD or a pregnancy.

Parents deliberately expose their kids to more consequences, it's only fair that they should share in them somehow.

Vending machines is a nice start, but we should really be pushing for free condoms for kids in schools. Free condoms in the bathrooms, free condoms in the homeroom goodie bag that starts off the school year and free condoms available at all times from the nurse's office (they still have nurses, don't they?).

Of course, I'm for putting planned parenthood stations in every high school, so what do I know?

What is wrong with today's young people?

when i was a teen, i strode proudly into the drugstore to by condoms. No, it was not because i was buying the magnums, it was because i just all round felt like a stud.

It is sad to see how far today's youth have fallen.

Vending machines???

In my highschool they were free.
We still had one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the state. And nodody even tried to blame the condoms. The trouble was that town was poor and had a major drug problem. We were in crisis mode.

there is such a thing as a vending machine that does not require a payment, so fact that they are "vending machines" does not tell us if they are free or not.

What a concept! If only we could connect the dots and realize teenagers are having sex here, too!
And it's great, JJS, that you had the confidence to buy condoms from the drugstore, but our society does not foster that sense of security in all adolescents. If you live in a small town and you are trying to have safe sex without your Sunday School teacher praying for you, it is a super swell idea to put condoms in a place where someone might feel okay about purchasing them.

At my former australian high school (girls only), there weren't vending machines in the toilets, but Ansell supplied lots of them to our comprehensive health/body/relationship/sex education, and they were freely distributed in those classes. I was truely surprised to learn there weren't vending machines for them at the boys school. I just assumed condom vending machines were a typical accessory for male toilets, like tampon dispensers are in female loos.

It sounds better than it really is.

The Democrats aren't a major party here, there's only a few of them in each Parliament, so mostly they can say things like this to get a debate started, but it won't ever happen.

And yet another reason why I'm jealous of my friends in Australia.

Three cheers for Kate Reynolds for being willing to understand reality. Maybe we could import her brand of Earth logic here, instead of the wingnut logic that we currently have to endure.

Actually it's a silly subject, condoms are readily available at any corner shop. Perhaps the only benefit, is for those who wish to sneak away at lunchtime or hang around after school and find a little nook in which to have a "quickie". But even then, they have them in their wallets, backpacks etc they main problem is getting them to use them, so maybe from that point of view it would encourage them to think, especially if available in the girls toilets. But in most are only having sex within their own group and probably figure that disease is not a problem.

We don't have school nurses etc they just go home, collected by parents, taken to hospital or whatever is appropriate according to the situation.