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When Madison West High School students return to classes in the fall, they’ll have a new avenue to learn about sexual health — and acquire free condoms.

The school is launching a pilot “Condom Availability Program” to provide the prophylactics to students who request them for free in an attempt to prevent sexually transmitted infections and teach them about sexual health.

While the pilot is still in the planning stages, Sally Zirbel-Donisch, the district’s health services coordinator, said a key component will be education. Students will be told about reproductive health, proper condom use and sexual consent when they first seek a condom from the nurse’s office, she said.

“It’s really an idea that we’ve been thinking about for several years,” Zirbel-Donisch said. “Other high schools throughout the country have had these programs, and we felt it was time that (the Madison School District) stepped up and did it ourselves.”

School Board member Ali Muldrow said she is supportive of the pilot.

“It de-stigmatizes the conversation about what options young people have, and it normalizes contraceptives and protection and getting testing,” said Muldrow, who follows issues of reproductive health and safe sex as the director of GSAFE.