Recently at one of my school's student council meetings, condom distribution was brought up. Apparently last year, someone fought for the right to hand them out in the nurse's office and lost.

As a teenager, I don't understand the controversy over the situation because everywhere I look - on television, on billboards, in the movies, even in school hallways, I see something that pertains to sex. Just because condoms would be handed out in school, this wouldn't possibly promote sex anymore than it already is.

Adults are always stressing abstinence. Of course abstinence is the best form of birth control and the best way to avoid sexually-transmitted diseases, but it is not very realistic to teens in today's world. Adults also stress the fact that if we are going to be sexually active then we should take precautions and protect ourselves. Isn't receiving condoms at the nurse's office a step toward stopping teen pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases, especially the HIV virus?

I think the distribution of condoms at the nurse's office is a good idea. It's more convenient for sexually-active teens because it's free and we don't have to face the embarrassment of buying them at a drug store.

The only way to start to solve the problem of teen sex is to make people understand that teenagers are going to have sex, regardless of the risks, and if condoms are not provided, they most likely won't be used. n