Condoms now available at some Kelowna high schools

CENTRAL OKANAGAN – A three-month pilot project providing students at local high schools with access to free condoms is up and running.

Central Okanagan school district chair Moyra Baxter says the project has been approved and is in place at Kelowna Secondary School, Rutland Senior Secondary and Mount Boucherie Secondary schools.

Students in those schools can access condoms, along with a questionnaire on sexual health, during the three-month trial period.

The condom pilot project was first proposed to the school district in 2015 by the Interior Health Authority and given preliminary approval, however school trustees deferred final decision to the parent advisory councils of the schools fitting the project’s criteria.

Baxter has no details of how the condoms are being distributed, although former superintendent of schools Hugh Gloster said in the fall that discretion would be assured for students using the service.

The proposal for a condom pilot project was made in school districts throughout the health authority’s service area by community integrated health services.

The program is already in place in th Vernon School District and other school districts.

The aim is to increase condom use amongst sexually active teens and in turn, reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection rates within the health authority.

To contact a reporter for this story, email John McDonald at jmcdonald@infonews.ca or call 250-808-0143. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.