A Bletchley, England, school has been sharply criticized for offering pregnancy tests to girls as young as 11 without telling their parents, a report said.
Family values organizations said Leon School and Sports College had overstepped its authority.
"Children go to school to learn English, maths and science, not to have pregnancy tests," Nick Seaton of the Campaign for Real Education told the London Daily Mail.
However, the headmaster at the school in south-central England defended the policy.
"We have decided to offer pregnancy testing for those young girls who have a need," said Simon Viccars. "We have not consulted parents on this. We have taken the lead. It has been backed totally by the school's governing body and we have consulted the local health authority."
School officials said 59 of 1,000 teenage girls become pregnant on average each year in the area. That is higher than Britain's overall teenage pregnancy rate of 42 per 1,000 -- the highest of any country Europe, the newspaper reported.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
