Memphis High School Dealing with Pregnancy Boom

Well, what do you do? Take away financial support for those in need? It's not like anyone is making a killing by having babies.

Not sure.

Not sure.

At least we agree on something

It is way past time to look at the ACTUAL facts (if they can be discerned) and go where ever it might take us to..try and find out some real answers....as painful as it might be. Playing political games, making nice and throwing more programs and cash is going nowhere but down the toilet........

Evidence based practice, it's out there already. It's a good place to start.

There are a million factors at play. Poor parental guidance, lack of sex education, the typical stuff. But also:

- Lower-income areas often have single parents raising kids. So it's the world the teenage girl grew up in; if mom can raise me all by herself why do I need to be married to have a child? It never occurs to them, it was just the world they were brought up in.

- You know what they say about idle hands. These kids usually are not keeping busy enough. Parents should have them joining the yearbook club, or playing sports, or playing an instrument, or cheerleading, or choir, or dance, or theater, whatever. Just have them doing something to keep them busy.

- You know how high schools are, there are popularity tiers. All it takes is for two or three of the tier 1 girls in school (they're usually the attractive ones) to get pregnant at the same time, and all of a sudden at that school being pregnant is in style. Or at least any stigma is removed from it.

- I do think Firstdown is right, where there's shame coming from the peer group, the stigma remains strong, even when a few of the popular girls get knocked up.

- And then sometimes kids just screw up. You can be an honor student with a loving mom and dad at home, the whole nine yards. But the condom breaks, or a momentary display of indiscretion and going unprotected leads to pregnancy. They're kids, sometimes they do dumb things, even the bright ones.

I'm scared to death for the time when my girls reach their teenage years. I'll be the dad sitting on the porch in a rocking chair in the dark, with a shotgun on his lap.

There are a million factors at play. Poor parental guidance, lack of sex education, the typical stuff. But also:

- Lower-income areas often have single parents raising kids. So it's the world the teenage girl grew up in; if mom can raise me all by herself why do I need to be married to have a child? It never occurs to them, it was just the world they were brought up in.

- You know what they say about idle hands. These kids usually are not keeping busy enough. Parents should have them joining the yearbook club, or playing sports, or playing an instrument, or cheerleading, or choir, or dance, or theater, whatever. Just have them doing something to keep them busy.

- You know how high schools are, there are popularity tiers. All it takes is for two or three of the tier 1 girls in school (they're usually the attractive ones) to get pregnant at the same time, and all of a sudden at that school being pregnant is in style. Or at least any stigma is removed from it.

- I do think Firstdown is right, where there's shame coming from the peer group, the stigma remains strong, even when a few of the popular girls get knocked up.

- And then sometimes kids just screw up. You can be an honor student with a loving mom and dad at home, the whole nine yards. But the condom breaks, or a momentary display of indiscretion and going unprotected leads to pregnancy. They're kids, sometimes they do dumb things, even the bright ones.

I'm scared to death for the time when my girls reach their teenage years. I'll be the dad sitting on the porch in a rocking chair in the dark, with a shotgun on his lap.

Shame is probably not the correct word but it seems now days people seem to think its just Ok for a 16 yr olds to be getting knocked up. I don't think we need to go back to the days when we would ship our daughter off for 9 months but they need to know that getting knocked up at a young age is wrong. When I was in high school maybe one or two girls got preg. and were seen kind of like out cast. That probably is not totally right but it seemed to work. All I know as we have made it more acceptable the problem has become much worse. That goes for allot of things with teens now days.

Well, what do you do? Take away financial support for those in need? It's not like anyone is making a killing by having babies.Not necessarily financial support, but sex ed programs and grant money being thrown at this will have the same effect as religious groups teaching abstinence.....None. The benefit of the religious groups, they don't cost any Fed or state/local tax dollars, their efforts are on their own dime & time.

From the article:
- After-school and in-school programs funded with grant money, operated by a local non-profit that already does some work for city schools.
- A $250,000 advertising campaign targeted at the Frayser community that is based on research done in focus groups at the school.
- A federally funded component that emphasizes the responsibility of young men, operated through a Memphis hospital
The city of Memphis is also a partner in the initiative, and could offer some support, possibly through the Social Innovation Fund.

Hog1 is spot-on: "throwing more programs and cash is going nowhere but down the toilet........ "

Shame is probably not the correct word but it seems now days people seem to think its just Ok for a 16 yr olds to be getting knocked up. I don't think we need to go back to the days when we would ship our daughter off for 9 months but they need to know that getting knocked up at a young age is wrong. When I was in high school maybe one or two girls got preg. and were seen kind of like out cast. That probably is not totally right but it seemed to work. All I know as we have made it more acceptable the problem has become much worse. That goes for allot of things with teens now days.

Yeah call it what you want, but I remember the one girl that got pregnant while I was in high school was derided and ostracized from her social circle. Shame, derision, whatever. There's no stronger force for a teenager than his/her peers thinking poorly of them. If the kids think it's actually cool to be pregnant in high school then they're all in trouble.

I highly doubt kids think its cool to be pregnant. I think they just dont realize what they are dealing with and they just think they wont get pregnant. The thought of sex and it's pleasures are much more short-term than pregnancy, and younger people always focus on the short term.

It happens because demand for sex must forever be increased with incentive after incentive. Promoting an environment with disincentives to having sex is archaic, repressive, and obviously unfit for a for an "advanced" society with governments who have infinite money to spend.