Condoms Approved For All Montgomery County High Schools

ROCKVILLE, MD — Montgomery County Public Schools will offer free condoms at all its high schools, a unanimous school board vote confirmed Tuesday.

The district began the year with a pilot program that only offered condoms at four high schools, but a continued rise in sexually transmitted infections in the county, including chlamydia and gonorrhea, spurred an effort to expand the program in recent weeks.

The district was asked to reach an agreement on condom distribution with the county's health department by Oct. 1, the Washington Post reports. The health department staffs high school clinics and health rooms.

The county health department will depend on a state-provided ration of 4,000 condoms a month, The Post wrote. If more are needed, the district can purchase them at an estimated $90 per 1,000, health department spokeswoman told The Post.

The push for greater condom availability came alongside updated Centers for Disease Control data that showed a four consecutive year rise in STI infection rates.

In the study, discussed at an August National STD Prevention Conference in Washington, D.C., the CDC found that from 2013 to 2017 syphilis cases nearly doubled, gonorrhea cases increased by 67 percent and chlamydia remained at record highs.

A memorandum from school board member Jill Ortman-Fouse and county councilman George Leventhal implored the district to immediately expand the program to all high schools in the district while also studying the effectiveness of expanding the program to middle schools.

"Studies have shown that when condoms are provided in conjunction with education on the prevention of STIs, it leads to a decrease in the initiation of sexual activity and, more broadly, leads to positive health outcomes, particularly among high-risk groups," the memo reads.

The Washington Post reports nearby Virginia counties of Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William do not offer condoms, but that Prince William students can obtain condoms at four county clinics for high schoolers. Alexandria, Virginia, meanwhile, offers birth control at a clinic at T.C. Williams High School

The Post, citing federal data, reported that present day teens forego condoms at a higher rate than students in 2015. In Maryland, 43 percent of students reported not using a condom in 2017, a rise from 39 percent two years prior.

In 2013, WTOP reports, schools in D.C. initiated a program that trained students to become "peer educators." Since then, 300 students have attended a webinar, passed a test and became certified educators.

Michael Kharfen, senior deputy director for HIV/Hepatitis/STD's/TB Administration at the D.C. Department of Health, told WTOP those students have distributed more than 300,000 condoms and helped educate their peers with correct information on sexual health.

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