A Teen’s Right to Confidentiality : Oceanside schools back students seeking medical treatment without parent OK

The rights of minors to seek medical treatment, in certain circumstances, without their parents’ consent are usually debated in courtrooms or the Legislature.

For most families, those rights are moot, because most children tell their parents about their health problems. And that’s as it should be.

Those who support those rights take solace in their existence, but few people think about how they are exercised. School officials have to think about it. For many teen-agers, school hours are the only time they can go to a doctor without their parents knowing.

That puts school officials in a difficult position. School can be the first place the right is tested.

The Oceanside Unified school board realized this and last week reaffirmed this right, which understandably makes teachers, counselors and administrators as uneasy as parents. Unlike school boards in Vista and Poway, the Oceanside board was able to resist parental pressure and keep the children’s welfare in mind.

The right exists for good reasons: for children who are abused or molested by family members, for girls who want birth control advice or devices. For girls who are pregnant and fear their parents may either forbid or require an abortion. For teen-agers with venereal disease or those who want confidential treatment for a drug or alcohol problem. For rape victims.

These rights have developed over many years of law and court decisions interpreting the state constitution. Many of these rights date back to the 1950s. Although the right to abortion without parental consent is still being argued in state courts.

Since 1987, parents have been advised each year in writing that children, age 12 and over, have this right and that the school may grant excused absences for certain “confidential medical services.” It’s up to the doctor to determine if the services qualify under the law and whether the child is able to give informed consent. The school can only verify that the doctor’s appointment is real and that it was kept. And they may ascertain that the child has a safe means of transportation.

The right is seldom exercised by the 6,200 Oceanside junior and senior high school students--only four times in the past five years that school officials know of.

Perhaps that’s a sign that many Oceanside youths trust their parents.

But fortunately for those four students, who felt they couldn’t, there was some recourse.