Advice from the School Nurse

Do you watch “What Would You Do?” on ABC?  It’s a favorite in our house.  Real world situations…hidden cameras…honest reactions…lots of great conversations with our children in the days that follow.

Last night’s episode has been the subject of a lot of discussion in our house today.  It’s not the parents talking with the children, but the parents talking to each other.  It was disturbing to us as parents.  The final segment featured the dilemma “What would people do if they saw a teenage boy trying to pressure his girlfriend into having an abortion.”

At minute 4:30, a mother and son sit down in the booth next to the actors.  When the “boyfriend” storms out, the son slides over and comforts the crying girl even offering her a ride home.  His mother on the other hand tells her “it’s going to be hard though” seemingly steering the girl away from the decision she has already made and toward abortion.  God bless her son who cuts her off.  (If there are any single women who know that guy, SNAP HIM UP!!!!!!!!  That is one great guy.)

The reactions are all pretty easily predicted and not unexpected, until minute 7 when the young couple encounter a public school nurse. The part that the host calls “the most impressive reaction of the day.” The nurse admits that this is a situation she has dealt with too often, and she seems to have a lot of experience talking to teenagers about this very thing.  Watch for yourself and then meet me back here.

http://abcnews.go.com/assets/player/walt2.6/flash/SFP_Walt_2_65.swf

Here’s what bothers us: She never asked the girl about her parents or advised her to talk to them.  They are her parents and love her, and yet this total stranger feels it is her place and that she is competent to tell these people what to do with their baby’s life.  (Is this how she counsels children entrusted to her care in the school?)  “I don’t know that keeping a child at 16 is going to be the wisest move because probably the person you’re going to be with isn’t going to be this person right here.”  She tells the girls who HAS ALREADY SAID SHE WANTS TO KEEP HER BABY.   Within seconds of sitting down with people she had never before met, she usurps parental authority, ignores the wishes of the girl, and counsels them to abort.  WITHIN SECONDS OF SITTING DOWN! 

This is an outrageous act.  This is not the action of someone being a good hearted person, although she probably thinks of herself as such.  This is liberal thinking personified and sitting down to counsel teenagers.  Their families don’t matter, the baby doesn’t matter, their own ethics don’t even seem to matter as she encourages them to think only of themselves.  I wish they had let the tape run longer so that we could have seen the other places her advice would take them.

Is this the counseling they would get if they saw this woman in the nurses office?  Advice to abort and a secret ride to the clinic without telling her parents?  It happens all over this country that the schools attempt to step in as pseudo-parents and strip us of our authority and rights.  It will continue until we, as parents, demand an end to this end-run around our care and concern for our children. 

The moral of the story is the son in the second group is amazing, catch him if you can…but if you see the nurse, run away!