Condom plans for school commonroom

Press, 16 November 1987, Page 34

Condom plans for school commonroom

fa iNeison A Nelson couple plan to install condom vending machines in many places in town, including high school Form 7 commonrooms.

They say their venture is partly business and partly because they feel young people should have ready access to condoms because of the A.I.D.S. threat.

But high school principals surveyed said they did not think their boards of governors would approve. One called it "ridiculous.”

Mrs Sandy Lawrence and her husband Doug expect to install a dozen machines, selling packets of two condoms for $2, over the next week and hope to have 30 in use next year.

They have already put one in a nightclub and “it’s going like a bomb,” Mrs Lawrence said yesterday.

The machines are being supplied from the North Island and she said a percentage of profits was to go to the A.I.D.S.

Foundation. So far the couple have approached Nelson nightclubs, pubs, and restaurants. “They’re all absolutely delighted,” Mrs Lawrence said. She and her husband did not expect to make a lot of money from the machines. Vending machines in toilet areas would enable people to buy condoms without embarrassment, they say. Principals of local colleges all said that they felt high schools were inappropriate places for selling condoms and that their boards were unlikely to approve the idea. Nelson Polytechnic’s deputy principal, Dr John Cretney, said the issue was being discussed and a policy would be formed once a paper on the implications had been removed.

The Nelson Regional Airport Authority has declined to allow Mr and Mrs Lawrence to install a condom vending machine at Nelson Airport.