Very few things ever blow my mind completely and leave me unsure, confused and totally open for debate. But, catching up on the news today, this is exactly what happened.
Denver has a major problem, both statewide and nationwide. It has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the state of Colorado, and much higher than even the national average. Now why has this hit national news?
A pregnant woman who is already receiving services that many adult pregnant women don't even receive is trying to make the school board give her four weeks maternity leave from her education. It's not like she's in college. She's a high school student - a kid in herself. Now I know being a new mother is hard enough. This is in no way a judgement against her, her choices (poor as they may be), or anything else. Let us just deal with the issue at hand.
So what do we do in a situation like this? Do we say "No, you're a child and by law you have to be in school, so have your baby and come back to school" or do we say "Take some time off, and come back in four weeks" to this young woman? Do we focus on her education (which, statistically, she's several times more likely to drop out already), or do we focus on her new role as mom? Which side do we take?
And what does this say about our society? That our school districts are now going to have to set up day care so that their children's children can be taken care of? And wasn't abstinence-only supposed to solve this problem? Does letting a teen mom take a month off of school (even if she's still working on her studies at home) in some way glorify teen sex and pregnancy? Does the inevitable "ooh" and "aah" that the teen mom gets while in school do it? Or are we not giving our young women enough credit? How do we at least get the kids to at least use protection if they're not going to at least wait until they themselves aren't kids any longer?
I anxiously await everyone's opinions as I can see both sides of the coin here. Help me find the third side of the coin!
No comments:
Post a Comment