To the Editor:

School medical personnel dispensing the morning-after pill to children under the age of consent borders on being an illegal act. An Associated Press story on New York City’s school practice (Sept. 26) states that the dispensing of this OTC drug is done “to girls as young as 14 ... sometimes even before they have had sex.” Implied is the practitioner’s knowledge that a 14-year-old has been sexually assaulted (raped, because she cannot legally consent) and has not reported the criminal act to the police. I am under the impression that knowledge of a criminal act and failure to report that activity is itself a crime. I believe it’s called being an accessory to the crime.

Unfortunately, there appears to be a consensus that the male perpetrator should not be prosecuted for his failure to act responsibly. So we permit medical personnel to ignore their responsibility, which results in no action to identify the male participant so that he might suffer the consequences. Bottom line, this approach to “protecting” children from pregnancy protects not the child but the criminal.