SeaTac will help fund a student health clinic at Tyee High School.

City council members agreed in a 4-3 vote Dec. 13 to accept $50,000 from the Highline School District to fund a school police officer for Tyee.

In exchange, the city will contribute $50,000 to the clinic.

The city and school district still must negotiate a memorandum of understanding.

Funding for the police officer was in the 2006 SeaTac budget passed recently by the council.

Several human services workers and four Tyee girls testified that a student clinic was needed at the SeaTac school.

Council members approved the funding despite objections that another health clinic will be located one block from the school, the facility would be mainly a "sex clinic," and an adequate business plan had not been presented.

Mayor Frank Hansen, in his final decision after 16 years on the council, cast the deciding vote.

Also in favor were Councilmen Chris Wythe, Ralph Shape and Joe Brennan.

Opposed were Deputy Mayor Terry Anderson and councilmen Gene Fisher and Don DeHan.

King County also budgeted $50,000 for the clinic, contingent on SeaTac's participation. If the city lawmakers had not approved funding last week, the county's money would have gone elsewhere.

The 500-square-foot clinic will provide primary care, vaccinations, disease management. sports physicals, health education and acute care.

A nurse practitioner, medical assistant and a service referral representative will staff it.

The Highline district also provides a half-time nurse at the 1,200-student school.

Tom Tompeter, executive director of Community Health Services, said his agency picked Tyee for the one-year pilot project based on poverty and health statistics.

He noted SeaTac's teen birth, teen smoking and uninsured rates are twice the county's average.

SeaTac parents are three times more likely to be high school dropouts, Tompeter added.

He maintained that students would not go to a health clinic that serves other groups and that an on-campus clinic means less missed school time for health appointments.

"You have to meet the market where the market wants to be," Tompeter declared.

Retired nurse Marion Henry said a Lutheran Social Services health clinic will open soon about a block east of the school where teens will be treated respectfully.

Tompeter's group will also administer that clinic.

Deputy Mayor Anderson said students would need to use the Lutheran clinic when school is closed.

She added that most residents oppose the student clinic, feeling "that schools are there to educate, not medicate."

SeaTac resident Linda Snider charged the facility is "going to be a sex clinic with free condoms and reproductive advice that could be contrary to parents' wishes."

Tompeter countered, "It's not about being a contraceptive clinic. We're not going to get between parents and their kids."

When the clinic was first proposed to the council on Oct. 11, school board member Phyllis Byers said she didn't know whether the board would approve condom distribution.

Fisher complained that lawmakers had not been shown a business plan.

"A worthwhile need shouldn't negate solid planning," he observed.

Tompeter told Fisher his group has a business plan.

He added, "We have been doing this for 30 years, rather successfully."

DeHan said he didn't understand why the city had been put in the middle of a controversial plan. He suggested the school district should fund the clinic directly rather through an exchange of funds.

A female Tyee student told lawmakers, "This sounds like such a clich/, but my family is going to have a delayed Christmas because of my earlier medical costs."

Another girl said she is in pain but is delaying going to a doctor for a few months until she is 18 and can qualify for adult health benefits.

She added her mother works at a day care center and doesn't make much money. Her father, who is divorced from her mother, is difficult to get money from, the student added.

Wythe said he was surprised lawmakers would oppose the one-year experiment.

"Do we want to stand behind our kids and their health?” he challenged.

Added Brennan, "I'm really torn on this. I'm going to vote for it, but it is the hardest decision I've made since becoming a council member."

Eric Mathison can be reached at hteditor@robinsonnews.com or 206-444-4873.