New CPS program puts free condoms in nearly every school — including elementaries

When Chicago Public Schools students head back to their schools next month, any school with kids in the 5th grade and up will offer birth control.

By Nader Issa@NaderDIssa Jul 6, 2021, 5:30am CDT

The Chicago Public Schools’ Board of Education approved of a policy mandating schools that teach fifth grade and up must maintain condom availability as part of the sexual health education curriculum.

“Young people have the right to accurate and clear information to make healthy decisions,” said Kenneth Fox, a spokesman for Chicago Public Schools. “And they need access to resources to protect their health and the health of others as they act on those decisions.”

Fox added that the move is "a step in the right direction for student health."

“Essentially what we want to do is make condoms available to students for if and when they think they need them,” Fox said. "When you don’t have those protections and don’t make those resources available then bad stuff happens to young people. You have elevated risks of sexually transmitted infections, of unintended pregnancies, and that’s very preventable stuff.”

Elementary schools will receive 250 condoms and high schools will get 1,000. The Chicago Department of Public Health will provide free condoms to the district, according to the report. Fox said that not everybody will be “on board” but that “society has changed."

When Fox was asked why fifth grade was the target age for condom and birth control access, he said, that decision was “informed by a developmental understanding of children,” and he asserted there would be no adverse effects on younger kids.

“CPS stresses that choosing to not have sex is the norm for 5th graders. Parents/guardians should be notified by their school if a condom demonstration will be provided,” the curriculum reads.

INVESTIGATION FINDS FBI IN 2015 IGNORED COMPLAINTS BY OLYMPIC GYMNASTS THAT THEY WERE BEING SEXUALLY ABUSED, ALLOWING THE ABUSE TO CONTINUE
by Kevin Ryan

A Justice Department investigation has determined that FBI agents in 2015 ignored claims by Olympic gymnasts that they were being sexually assaulted by national team doctor Larry Nassar. One FBI supervisor even applied for a job at USA Olympics when he was supposed to be investigating the claims. The agents then lied to cover up their inaction.

Today’s report by the office of the inspector general concluded that multiple FBI failings and misconduct allowed Nassar to continue abusing dozens of girls.

According to the report, on July, 28, 2015, USA Gymnastics brought complaints about Nassau’s conduct into the FBI’s Indianapolis field office. The bureau did almost nothing in response:

• After the meeting, Indianapolis agents spoke with only one gymnast, by phone. They did not follow up with other gymnasts.
• The Indianapolis agents failed to transfer the allegations to the FBI’s resident agency in Michigan, even though they told USA Gymnastics that they had.
• They did not contact state or local enforcement or take any other action to mitigate the risk to gymnasts that Nassar continued to treat.
• The special agent in charge of the office, Jay Abbott, even asked the head of USA Gymnastics about a potential vacancy at the U.S. Olympic Committee while the two discussed the Nassar allegations. Abbott then applied for the job, and later lied to internal investigators, saying he had not.
• The office not even formally document their 2015 meeting until nearly a year and a half later, in February 2017.
• As the FBI was ignoring the case in 2015 and 2016, nothing was said to Nassar’s employer at Michigan State University, where he continued to see patients for a year.

The report says this allowed Nassar to abuse dozens of other girls.

Nassar was eventually arrested on November 22, 2016 on state sexual-abuse charges in Michigan, and in December 2016 on federal child-pornography charges. He was found to have sexually abused hundreds of women and girls around the country and overseas, and through his employment at Michigan State University.

He pleaded guilty in 2017 and is now serving life in prison.

When the FBI agents’ supervisor and the agent in charge of the office Jay Abbott were questioned by the Office of Inspector General, they lied to cover up their misconduct, today’s report says.

The FBI has responded to the report’s revelations, saying: “We accept in full the OIG’s recommendation and take especially seriously the findings that certain FBI employees did not respond to allegations of sexual abuse adequately and with the utmost urgency in 2015 and 2016.”