Prom season is a time of celebration and a rite of passage of sorts. It’s a night of memories that teenagers never forget.
This year, one school is setting out to make prom night memorable in many ways, with support from some parents and disbelief from others.
Bedford-Stuyvesant Preparatory High School in Brooklyn, N.Y. will give away 500 condoms to prom attendees at the school’s June 7 event.
“As they leave the prom, they are welcome to it,” school principal Darryl Rascoe. “We are not forcing it on anybody, but we want them to have that option.”
Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, disagrees with the move.
“We are concerned that the distribution of condoms on school campuses further normalizes teen sex,” she said.
The school of about 130 students already gives out free condoms s part of HIV/AIDS prevention programs.
In addition to giving away the condoms, the school will hold a safe sex school assembly sponsored by the makers of NuVo, a condom company, days prior to the prom.
