I FIND it ironic that a group of parents have taken exception to the Revere School Department’s interfering in a realm they consider to be intrusive into their family lives (“Birth control battle in Revere: Vote sought to halt distribution at school,’’ Metro, Sept. 6).
We allow school athletic departments to bench players who miss practices during designated school vacations. We allow sports competitions to take place during Sunday morning church hours. We allow school committees to dictate homework guidelines, sending 5-year-olds home with an hour of school work when they should be enjoying play time. We rush to stores to buy books for required summer reading to prevent our children from coming back to school in September with poor marks before classes even begin. Somehow, in the last 20 years or so, parents have willingly allowed school-related activities to monopolize what was previously considered family time.
With respect to schools being allowed to distribute birth control, I maintain that we give it a try. Do the parents from Revere (and other cities and towns) really believe their current plan is working? Teaching abstinence and waiting for families to handle birth control issues internally resulted in more than a dozen young Gloucester girls getting pregnant and headlining national news. What more of a wakeup call do we need?
Lisa Gery
Marblehead 
