As if from a backward culture to “real” civilization. As though the poor girl would have risked cruel and unusual punishment if she had confided in her fanatical parents.
Of course – so went the unspoken assumption – the counselor had to advise the girl to abort her baby. Why, he even helped her schedule the appointment and fabricated a story to explain to the authorities why she missed several hours of school to keep it.
You can expect the media to heighten a controversy; that’s what sells papers and boosts ratings. But there is something almost sinister in the way that they initially portrayed the plight of the poor, pregnant high school girl.
Let’s step back a moment – way back – and get a fresh perspective.
I work part-time as a tutor for middle and high school students. Before I can begin to tutor a student, the agency requires a contract signed in duplicate by the parent or guardian. When I tutor at the student’s home, a parent or other responsible adult must be there the entire time. Usually the student’s mother greets me at the door; after the session she signs the “receipt.” I have to keep records of what is covered during each session and report at least bi-weekly to my superior on the student’s progress.
All these rules reflect the simple fact that the legal guardian, not the student, is the customer of the tutoring services.
Let’s examine the job of a public school counselor along similar lines. Who pays the counselor’s salary? Citizens who pay taxes: the same citizens, that is, who live in that locality and send their children to the public schools. Who is the “customer” of the counseling services that a school may provide? The student receives the counseling, but ultimately it is a service rendered to the parents, who pay taxes and are responsible for their child until she or he reaches seniority.
The question from the progressive mindset at this point is, “Well, what if the parents are the student’s problem?” Aside from the attitude, that is a good question. Glad they asked! A counselor for a minor, whether hired at private expense or provided by the school system, can help that minor to understand and to deal with her situation and to reason objectively about her options.
May a counselor advise a student to undergo “elective surgery” without telling her parents? How could he?! A school nurse cannot give out an aspirin without parental permission!! If a counselor ever offered such “advice,” it would not be in his professional capacity at all. It would not be helping a student deal with her medical situation (“What’s a minor to do?”). Rather, it would be advising her to deny her actual situation, in which she must discuss the matter with her parents sooner or later. Or else it would be inciting her to change that situation, in effect to run away from home and be on her own. That is neither the counselor’s job nor a service to the client.
The opinion that a minor girl has a “right” to an abortion is extremely difficult for pro-aborts to justify. It’s not something they like to argue in public because they’re so unconvincing. For one thing, this supposed right conflicts with the clear and comprehensive rights of the girl’s parents or legal guardian(s). They are the adults who feed and clothe and shelter her every day and who have to help pick up the pieces when there is heartbreak and tragedy. All of the pro-choice rhetoric withers when confronted with this simple but weighty fact. “It's her body….” “Oh, no,” say the parents, “She is our daughter and it’s our grandchild.”
Clearly, no high school counselor can claim professional confidentiality over and against the parents of the minor student whom he is counseling. A school counselor should not even begin conferring with a student on the medical-moral issue of abortion without the knowledge and consent of the student’s legal guardian(s).
The parents from the northern suburbs of Philadelphia eventually settled with the school district out of court. The girl soon regretted her decision, and her father and mother lovingly forgave her.
The high school weakly reprimanded the counselor. For some time afterward, school officials in neighboring districts dithered out loud in the press, declaring that some new policy would have to be devised to address this sort of situation. Some principals just didn’t seem to grasp the principles at stake.
Strange, but nobody thought of sending in a grief counselor.
