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[akule76]

I am 15 and yesterday I went to the family planning clinic to get the progesterone only pill (just in case, and because it can regulate your menstrual cycle).
I went with a few friends and we were all getting this pill
We signed a document stating that this will be kept completely confidential even though we are under 16. This was very important to us as we really, really do not want any of our parents finding out.
When we came into school we signed the late book and I said that I was at the doctor (we were given appointment cards from the doctor saying where we had been, an appointment card is valid to give to the school as an excuse for being late or absent) but my friends, being hilarious, wrote down 'family planning' in the book
So today, the four of us were called out of class by our school counselor. She told us that she had seen the excuse that my friends had written, and assumed that i was there for the same reason.
she said she called child protection and somewhere else, and apparently she has to inform our parents. But she is going to call them tomorrow to give us a chance to talk to them about it first.

So much for confidentiality! :S
Is she allowed to do this? Is she breaking any laws concerning my confidentiality?
I would appreciate any answers asap. Thanks

[gall]

Jessica,

Just be glad Rush didn't find out about you.

[delron72]

No confidentiality only applied to the health care people who treated you. Your idiot friends are the ones that put that down as a reason to be out of school so they broke the confidentiality.

[ezri]

Why wouldn't the school be allowed to tell your parents? The confidentiality is between the clinic and you, not the school and you.

And it's not very confidential if you friend writes it down in the late book. She's the one that broke any confidentiality, not the school or the clinic.

[shadrach]

Schools arent bound by HIPAA you signed the contract stating that your appointment would be confidential and stay only between YOU and the DOCTOR. your School did not agree to such contract therefore they had the right to contact your parents. dont blame the schools for contacting the appropriate people (CPS, and your parents) blame your friend for being stupid and blabbing what was actually going on. i bet that if your friend hadnt have done that they would have not seen a reason to call your parents.

[kendrix]

You all show up together, have appointment cards from the same place, what do you expect the school to think? They aren't stupid they can connect the dots and they realized that YOU were with them. Had your friends not been stupid the school wouldn't have found out. Basically the school will inform YOUR parents that you were with your friends and they claimed to be late for family planning. Your being given the chance to talk to your parents NOW so do it. Your school has the right to talk to your parents about this.

[porter]

I am fairly certain that your school councilor has NO right to do that whatsoever. Whatever goes on between you and your doctor IS CONFIDENTIAL.
Sounds like she's putting the frightners on you OR she's plain stupid!
I see you are from the states, I answered from UK.
Different strokes..........