Girls as young as 13 are given morning-after pills

At least 120 of these pupils were under-16 – the age at which you can legally have sex – and about 35 were in Year 9 or below.

The pills were dispensed between April 2006 and March 2008 by family planning nurses who run drop-in sexual health clinics at nine schools in North Yorkshire – of which 75 per cent are in York.

The clinics, which are funded by North Yorkshire’s NHS trust, are part of a drive to reduce York’s teenage pregnancy rate, which rose by 15 per cent between 1998 and 2006.

Only five other places in England saw a sharper rise, four of which were London boroughs. The majority of towns and cities saw a fall in their teenage pregnancy rate.

In 2006, 126 teenagers in York became pregnant, with 48 per cent having an abortion.

But campaigners today condemned the fact that pupils as young as 13 can be given morning-after pills without parental knowledge.

Michaela Aston, from the charity Life, said: “Parents have to give written permission for their child to be given paracetemol, but when it comes to sexual activities, parents are pushed out of the picture.

“How can a parent help their child if they don’t know what’s going on? It’s a complete nonsense.”

Nick Seaton, of the York branch of the Campaign For Real Education, also slammed the service. He said: “By handing out free morning-after pills in this way, it seems fairly obvious that they are encouraging under-age sexual activity and that is not the job of schools.

“It’s obviously wrong for schools to be condoning youngsters breaking the law in this way and it needs to be stopped.”

But Terry Cartmail, assistant head teacher at Huntington School, York, defended the drop-in clinics – which are held every Tuesday and Wednesday lunchtime at his school. He said there had been no teenage pregnancies at the school since the clinic was first launched in 2006.

“What started out for us as a worrying experiment has grown and we have developed a really good working relationship with the nurse who comes into the school to run the clinic,” he said.

“We believe that we are all in this together and schools have to open their doors and work with other agencies. I don’t think there is any sort of evidence to suggest that by offering children condoms and morning-after pills, we are telling them it is okay to have sex at such a young age. We do a lot of work with pupils in science and citizenship lessons promoting responsible behaviour and I would be very surprised if making condoms and morning-after pills available to them will make them dismiss all this teaching.”

Rachel Johns, associate director of public health at NHS North Yorkshire and York, said its first priority was to encourage teenagers not to become sexually active at a young age, but where appropriate, the health authority also delivered more reactive services, such as emergency contraception.

‘It’s illegal to have sex under 16, so schools should not be handing out morning-after pills’

THIRTEEN is too young – that was the unanimous opinion of three female students at York College, who shared their views on the availability of condoms and morning-after pills in schools.

Katherine Gibson, who is studying A-levels at the college, said she thought that offering the morning-after pill for free in schools was sending out the wrong message.

The 17-year-old said: “It’s illegal to have sex under 16, so schools should be promoting that and not handing out morning-after pills.

“I also don’t think it’s right that children under-16 can be given the morning-after pills at school without their parents being informed.

“When you go to the doctor before your 16, parents always get informed, so it should be the same here – the morning-after pill is a medication after all.

“Parents should be aware of the situation so they can help to prevent their child getting to that stage in the future.”

Aimee Hodgson, 19, who is studying for a foundation degree in community and public services, said it was good to teach schoolchildren about safe sex – but handing out free contraception was going too far.

She said: “It never really occurred to me when I was 13 that I’d need free condoms or morning-after pills. It was never an issue. I never thought that people around me were having sex.

“The clinics in schools are good in that they are promoting safe sex, but I don’t really think that any kind of safe sex should be promoted to 13-year-olds at all. It should be ‘don’t have sex at this age’.

Millie Brookes, 16, a beauty therapy student at York College, said she thought condoms and morning-after pills should be made available in schools – but only to pupils in Year 11 and the sixth form.

She said she thought there needed to be more initiatives in schools to encourage teenage girls to think more carefully about whether they were ready to become mums.

She said: “I think it would be a really good idea to have young mothers going into schools to talk about what it’s like to be a mother.

“We had reformed drug addicts come into our school and that had quite an impression on people – a lot of people in my class were quite stunned by some of the stuff they heard.”

Aimee said she thought chat shows and TV soaps were to blame for creating the impression that “sleeping around” was acceptable.

She said: “There are a lot of chat shows that have young mums going on saying how they got drunk and had a one-night stand and they’re acting as if that’s absolutely fine. I think that’s wrong. I think programmes like this should be showing how hard it is to be a young mum.

“At 16, you might be ready to have sex, but that doesn’t mean that you are mature enough to become a mother for the rest of your life.”

York teenage mum has ‘no regrets’

TEENAGER Aimee Hodgson said she had no regrets about becoming a mum at 18 – but said it would have been better had she waited until she was older.

The 19-year-old, who gave birth to her seven-month-old daughter in June, said she was determined to finish her foundation degree in community and public services at York College and go to university next year.

While she is at classes, she leaves her daughter in the college’s nursery at a discounted rate and also receives a financial support package from the college.

She said: “I enjoy being a mum because I love my little girl, but it is hard being a young mum and I would advise other girls that having a baby at a young age is a lot harder than you’d think. There are a lot of things that you can’t do and you have to give up a lot of things – you can’t just go out and you have to put a lot of things on hold.

“I can do my college work and I’m hoping to go to university next year and get a career, but it would be a much better idea to do that first and have a baby when you are sorted and have got more money.”

Helen Danks, a young adults’ health advisor at York College, said that while support mechanisms were in place to make sure students could continue their education if they did fall pregnant, the college worked hard to discourage teenage pregnancies.

Free condoms are available for all students who have signed up to have a C-Card and every student will also receive at least two group tutorials on sexual health every academic year.

Helen said: “The message that I try and get across is that they are young adults and we want them to make positive, informed and responsible choices about their sexual health.”

She said the college also ran a drop-in clinic every Monday and Friday, where students could be given the morning-after pill.

“The nurses that work in the drop-in are experts in sexual health and every young person that comes in and asks for the morning-after pill will receive counselling.

“The nurses will chat with them about what methods of contraception they are using.”

Fact file

Sexual health clinics in schools – how they work:

* Sexual health clinics in schools are funded by NHS North Yorkshire and York and were first piloted in York in 2001 as part of the Government’s teenage pregnancy strategy.

* The service has since expanded to cover most schools in the York and Selby area.

* The aim of the clinics is to reduce teenage pregnancies by encouraging pupils to discontinue or delay becoming sexually active, or if sexually active to practise safe sex.

* The clinics are run by school nurses and are part of a wider programme, which includes personal and social health and relationship education in schools. The nurses are supported by other health professionals.

* During an appointment the nurse will take a detailed history, and this allows them to consider the pupil’s circumstances and refer on anyone deemed to be at significant risk.

* Registered nurses who have received additional training give support and advice – this can incorporate relationship advice, contraception advice including emergency contraception, plus pregnancy and chlamydia testing.

* School nurses take every opportunity to encourage pupils to inform their parents about their situation, and will help them to do this. They also arrange follow-up appointments as required. * Morning-after pills cannot be given to pupils are under-13 without parents being informed.