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Students, Portland Public Schools administrators and Multnomah County officials gathered Monday at Roosevelt High School to celebrate the opening of a new location for the school's health clinic.
Thirty years ago, when Multnomah County and PPS launched the clinic in Roosevelt's basement, it was the first school-based health center in Oregon—and a source of controversy over the decision to offer high school students reproductive health care, including birth control.
Even some students found that objectionable, according to coverage in The Oregonian in 1986.
"It's like I'm on a diet, and you're putting this big cake in front of me saying, 'We don't encourage this, but you decide,'" a young woman stated at a public hearing at the time, according to the daily newspaper.
Holding up a stack of pink paper slips two-inches thick, former Roosevelt principal George Galati told the crowd Monday of the numerous aggrieved callers who phoned Roosevelt after the health center opened.
In the midst of a national debate over rising rates of teen pregnancy, many saw providing birth control as encouraging sexual activity among adolescents.
"Those of us who believe that the solution to the serious problem of teen pregnancy has to come by encouraging sexual abstinence see providing contraceptives in the school as a tragedy for teens and their families," a mother wrote in a March 1986 opinion piece published in The Oregonian. "The teen who has had sex once and seeks counseling might be helped to accept a sexually active lifestyle with the aid of birth control. Given this reassurance, a teen's sexual activity is likely to increase."
In the face of picketing, the school-based health center stayed open.
By 2013, the number of teen pregnancies in Multnomah County had dropped by 69 percent, Multnomah County officials say now.
"The Roosevelt experiment paid off," Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury told the crowd gathered at the school Monday. "Instead of protesting, now parents are asking for us to open more centers."
Following Roosevelt's lead, 12 more school-based health centers have opened in high schools across Multnomah County, offering students a range of services from physicals and acute illness care to mental health counseling.
Today at Roosevelt the health center is not in the basement, but in a welcoming and light-filled space decorated with original paintings by student artist Mulette Ally. It's funded by PPS's 2012 construction bond.
Student leaders from the Youth Action Counsel led tours of the new clinic Monday.
"It's great to have a school-based health center because it makes going to the doctor as simple as walking down the hall," Fredy Mejia, a senior at Roosevelt pictured above, said in a press release from the county. "The health center is a part of our school and we feel like they're really here for us."