Earlier this year the Revere, Massachusetts School Committee voted to allow Mass General’s school-based health center in the Revere High School to dispense condoms, birth control pills, birth control shots and even the Plan-B “morning after pill.”
In a move direct from the Planned Parenthood playbook, the school committee supported the new center in a 4 to 2 vote, citing their concern at the growing problem of teen pregnancy in the area. With the start of school and the new clinic now operating at the high school, outraged parents and a concerned local Catholic priest, Father George Szal, pastor of nearby Immaculate Conception Church, are now leading an effort to overturn the dubious decision at the ballot box this November.
Rallying other concerned parents over the Labor Day weekend, a Revere parent, Kathy Magno began collecting hundreds of signatures to get a question on the ballot in the local election scheduled for this November, while Father Szal mobilized his large parish to join in the effort. The question for the ballot asks voters to decide whether a temporary suspension of the program of distributing contraceptives and Plan-B should be implemented in order to establish “an advisory council, that includes parents and others pursuant to the Massachusetts General Laws, to evaluate the health risks and benefits of both contraception and abstinence.” Father Szal and Magno undertook this ballot effort after a subcommittee meeting of the school committee dismissed their opposition as not the concern of the majority of parents but simply an issue for Catholics.
This should in fact be a matter of grave concern for all Catholics but also for any concerned parent when elected officials or government bureaucrats undermine their role to properly act as moral guides for their children. These elected officials and school department bureaucrats should heed the wisdom of Michael Ferrante, one of the Revere School Committee members who voted in opposition to the centers, stating, “I think parents should do the parenting and not the school department.”
We commend Father Szal and his allies for their vociferous and determined opposition to the contraceptive clinics at Revere High School and ultimately, to allow parents to fulfill their responsibilities. Their courageous leadership of this effort should inspire not only Catholic households to act but all parents who desire to provide moral direction for their children.
The simplistic solution to a large social problem offered by members of the Revere School Committee to hand out contraceptives and abortifacients like aspirin smacks of social-engineering at its worst and must be overturned in order to truly study its adverse effects upon the students, parents and families of Revere.
School committee members and school department bureaucrats can provide much in support of the education of children, but they must never replace the role of parents. We hope restoration of parental rights is a lesson to be taught this November as the residents of Revere work to overturn the tragic social experiment at Revere High School.
