Aug
6
D.C. To Offer STD Tests to All High School Students
August 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment
After a pilot program found an alarming rate of STD (sexually transmitted disease) infection, officials in the Washington D.C. school system have decided to bring testing to all high schools in the upcoming school year.
Students will be brought to a mandatory 45-minute lecture and then given the option of providing urine samples for the tests. They will have the right to refuse. No parental consent is needed for the tests (it is legal for minors to have STD tests without parental notification throughout the U.S.).
During the pilot program, 3,000 students were tested and thirteen percent were found to have an infection. Out of the students offered the test in the pilot program, 68 pecent took the test and the rest opted out.
For more on this story, see The Washington Post