Sex-Ed Clinic Headed To Hopkins High School

As the parameters of sex education in schools are debated statewide, one suburban high school is making plans to begin an on-campus teen clinic that will offer pregnancy and STD screening and other services this fall.

Hopkins School District staff presented plans for a satellite office of the West Suburban Teen Clinic at Hopkins High to school board members during a recent meeting.

The Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts operate health clinics at several of their high schools, but experts say few suburban districts offer on-site reproductive health care.

"West Suburban [Teen Clinic] has been around a long time, and they're a good organization," said Brigid Riley, executive director of the Minnesota Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Prevention and Planning. Riley said Minnesota was one of the first places in the country to have school-based clinics.

In Minnesota, minors have access to reproductive health care such as birth control or testing for sexually transmitted disease without parental consent. Even so, staff members assured Hopkins school board members that parents would be allowed to withhold consent for students to be seen at the clinic.

"We don't want to do anything that will harm the relationship between parents and schools or schools and students," said Terry Bosacker, executive director of the West Suburban Teen Clinic, which has an office in Excelsior.