fanMAIL: Pregnant teens in high school

So let me get this straight, girls make a mistake and get pregnant, they then lose their opportunity to continue their education, make a good example for their child and support their family, however the boys who got them pregnant get to continue on with no consequences?? I’m sorry but that’s bullshit. I went to a high school where an exceptionally large amount of my classmates got pregnant. With the exception of 1, they all stayed in school until graduation. They had their babies, took 6 weeks off and came right back. Were doing homework at home while changing diapers. Every one of those girls who stayed, were better students afterwards than they were before. All but 2 are now college graduates and EVERY SINGLE ONE is making a life for herself and her children. Several are married to good men, all have good jobs, all have healthy, happy, well developed children. Matter of fact, they’re doing better now than most of the girls who didn’t have kids. And the one who dropped out, she was the one on and off welfare, living with her mother til almost 30 and now living with a baby daddy. She’s never held a good job, she has a GED now, but she was content to do nothing but raise her children.

You don’t deny an education to a person who wants it, no matter what mistakes they made as a youth. Period. Keeping pregnant girls in school does not inspire other teens to get pregnant, unless they’re idiots. Most teen pregnancies aren’t the result of teenagers following the crowd but are the results of teenagers not thinking that their actions have consequences. Pregnancy pacts and peer pressure are two things that have been hyped up with little proof or reason I feel sorry for anybody that can not see that. I’d already graduated (just) when I got pregnant with my oldest, but had I gotten pregnant a couple months earlier I wish someone would’ve have tried to put me out of school because of it

@Atypical THANK YOU!!!!! And let me just add that 9 out of 10 girls who see another pregnant teen are not thinking “cool, she’s pregnant” they’re thinking more on the lines of “damn that ish sucks”

@bric so basically you’re saying that teen girls who get pregnant are somehow inferior to your kids and incapable of making the responsible choice to come back and go to school? Do you realize how that sounds? Coddling these girls and letting them think it’s okay to slack off, that something is wrong with them or thinking that having a baby all of a sudden makes them different or incapable is wrong. There should be no leeway, there should be no slack off period, they should have a ice cold realization of being a mother and like most of us, have their baby, take their leave and come back ready to work in 6 – 8 weeks. That’s why they keep having babies, that’s why some do nothing with themselves, it’s people like you putting them aside, making them feel different and judging without knowing them so they stay home and collect a check.. Ugh

Actually, having children gives most women something to strive for. It takes away that silly notion that children have that they can do what they want regardless of the consequences. The majority of teen parents that I know came from good families, the kind of families that would not settle for less. Regular school provides a structure that alternative schools do not and as such we should be encouraging young women to stay in regular high school and do the same as their peers ie:, go to school every day on time, complete their assignments according to direction, listen to their teachers, sit in class for however many hours per day they are required. Doing that will prepare them for holding jobs in the future, it will teach them that the world does not make allowances for you simply because you are a mother, it will teach them that excuses for your shortcomings are not acceptable, etc. It’s a wake up call and a good learning experience for those who are pregnant/mothers and for those watching what the others are struggling towards. Pregnancy is not easy at any age, being a teenager and watching your friends pass you by with social experiences is a bitter pill to swallow but if you can swallow that pill you will emerge the better person. Forced enrollment in schools for pregnant mothers, alternative schooling, home schooling or expulsion removes that experience and in it’s way sets these girls up for failure. Besides, remove the pregnant girls from school and in a month you’ll be removing another set, the next month another set and so on because without good sex education these kids will continue to do the same thing whether they have other pregnant girls around them or not

@bric lol well then I apologize for my assumptions. Unfortunately my experience with alternative schools is that they are far more relaxed than regular schools and that bothers me. Where I live and places I’ve lived in the past, there is generally at least one sometimes more high schools that have a day care program for the students to use if needed and I applaud that. The program you worked for seems to be a model school unfortunately that isn’t the norm.

@Elove the foolishness that’s going on with these kids today make my crazy teen days look like I was in a seminary smh. All I can do is pray and do all I can to make sure that my kids know right from wrong and are growing up in the right way. People call me strict and overprotective but one day my kids will thank me

@VA