# 86 Pregnant teens in one school **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 15, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/86-pregnant-teens-in-one-school/567716 "2011-01-15T14:39:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/86-pregnant-teens-in-one-school/567716/61 "2011-01-18T16:47:17Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Why is he smiling? “Dude, I _knew_ this modeling thing would work out!” ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/86-pregnant-teens-in-one-school/567716/62 "2011-01-18T17:01:00Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > It also challenges the current educational system, with it’s rules to hold back young adults to the level as children far too long, and not recognizing their adult needs, including sex and children as part of their very being. So your notion is that children should be recognized as a basic need of high-school students? > [@](#): > > so on rare occasion when you need to use the law of cosigns your neighbor would be the one who can help you. Unless, of course, she was excused from class to tend her baby. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/86-pregnant-teens-in-one-school/567716/63 "2011-01-18T17:27:46Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > So your notion is that children should be recognized as a basic need of high-school students? It’s a human reality, WTF should school be preparing the children/young audults for if not that 😕 > [@](#): > > Unless, of course, she was excused from class to tend her baby. Exactly my point, not everyone needs to know the law of cosigns, and for the occasion it arises someone will know it. For most of humanity raising a child was more critical then the law of cosigns. But I’m sure that the great fear that this bit of human knowledge will pass into antiquity and go the way of greek fire if schools don’t teach it to every child is just a fear, and some people will have a passion for higher mathematics and will carry the legacy of trigonometry on. This last part is part of the mentoring process, which is part of child raising and the natural way of human learning according to their passions 😉 ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/86-pregnant-teens-in-one-school/567716/64 "2011-01-18T18:00:15Z")
Professor **kanicbird** , do you mind if I sit near the door? You’re making me uncomfortable… ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/86-pregnant-teens-in-one-school/567716/65 "2011-01-19T01:01:46Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > I have never heard of those people. I don’t have a TV so I miss out on a lot when it comes to celebrities. They’re from a popular show on MTV called _16 and Pregnant_ and the spin-off _Teen Mom_. While some would say that it does a good job depicting the real lives of pregnant teens (crappy editing aside, they do show the toll a girls’ pregnancy takes on relationships with the future father and their family, finances, the regret, etc.) a good portion of teen viewers are just going to see pregnancy = OMG on MTV!! And now on the cover of tabloids (and assumed to be, as you put it, celebrities by anyone who glances at them), for literally nothing other than being unfortunate enough to get pregnant at 16. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/86-pregnant-teens-in-one-school/567716/66 "2011-01-21T18:52:24Z")
I don’t suppose anyone is interested in an update? It appears that not only does the world now think we have no OB/GYNs in our county (in the city known for St. Jude and LeBonheur children’s hospitals), that school with such a high amount of pregnant teens has such a high rate because they have a city-wide program FOR pregnant teens. [http://www.abc24.com/news/local/story/Memphis-Superintendent-Tackles-Teen-Pregnancy/yauSSoNxsEC-5ueXgD4EVg.cspx?rss=59](http://www.abc24.com/news/local/story/Memphis-Superintendent-Tackles-Teen-Pregnancy/yauSSoNxsEC-5ueXgD4EVg.cspx?rss=59) MEMPHIS, TN – Are 90 students at one Memphis high school pregnant? The superintendent of Memphis City Schools says “no.” “There are not 90 children who are pregnant right now in Frayser High School,” Superintendent Kriner Cash said during a news conference Tuesday. He said the question has dogged him since last week, when reports surfaced that 90 students at Frayser High School are pregnant, or have had a child. “What I’ve said is that there are a number of girls at different stages of either having a child already or two, and a relatively smaller number who may be pregnant at a given time,” Cash explained. He said that number could be as high as 90, since Frayser High offers a program for teen mothers that attracts families. “There were 75 last year, so there could be 90 this year, particularly with either new entrants, new people coming in to be part of this program,” Cash said, describing the program as similar to school “magnet programs” for the sciences or arts. “Mothers and families are choosing Frayser because of the support they get from that program." He said 30 to 35 students have transferred to Frayser High just for that program, and he gave the details at that news conference with Memphis Mayor A C Wharton and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell at his side as he explained the programs the district has put in place. Several community and school leaders joined the group. It makes me wonder if our own loser superintendent or our even more annoying mayor didn’t concoct this story themselves to stimulate funds for this No Baby program. It would not surprise me in the least. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/86-pregnant-teens-in-one-school/567716/67 "2011-01-21T18:53:32Z")
This is the article about the televised claim that we have no OB/GYNs in Memphis. No, even Shelby County itself: [http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/jan/19/memphis-mayor-wharton-today-show-we-do-have-obgyns/](http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/jan/19/memphis-mayor-wharton-today-show-we-do-have-obgyns/) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/86-pregnant-teens-in-one-school/567716/68 "2011-01-21T21:00:57Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > …It makes me wonder if our own loser superintendent or our even more annoying mayor didn’t concoct this story themselves to stimulate funds for this No Baby program. > It would not surprise me in the least. [Here’s a story](http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news/local/011911-teen-mom-program-questioned-at-frayser-high-school) from a local TV station which suggests the program may be largely imaginary. Be warned, it’s a Fox station: > [@](#): > > And neither did we. But, when asked if FOX13 could be invited to see this program in action at Frayser, we were told by MCS spokesman Quintin Taylor that he’d have to clear it with the principal. Taylor never called back. So, we turned to Memphis City Councilwoman, Stephanie Gatewood, for her knowledge of just what the Frayser teen pregnancy program entailed. Gatewood confirmed it was former Frayser principal, Cassandra Turner, who should be credited with coming up with a loosely based series of workshops and presentations for the community. One was the establishment three years ago of the Young Women’s’ Summit consisting of occasional evening and Saturday sessions. > > “It wasn’t per se a program for single moms in as much as it was a program to help students who were at risk, who were over age for their grade, and it was attractive because they felt that they were safe,” Gatewood said. “This is a program that is not funded. So, any incentives that they give to the girls for coming, for showing up, that comes out of their pocket.” > > But why, as revealed at the news conference, would an estimated 30 to 35 pregnant students want to transfer to Frayser for a program that isn’t funded, has no solid curriculum and is not officially administrated by Memphis City Schools? Gatewood again pointed to Turner’s personal recruitment that brought kids to Frayser before she herself was replaced as principal… ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/86-pregnant-teens-in-one-school/567716/69 "2011-01-21T21:47:48Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > This is the article about the televised claim that we have no OB/GYNs in Memphis. No, even Shelby County itself: > [http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/jan/19/memphis-mayor-wharton-today-show-we-do-have-obgyns/](http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/jan/19/memphis-mayor-wharton-today-show-we-do-have-obgyns/) Once they get electricity and indoor plumbing, the OBGYNs will show up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/86-pregnant-teens-in-one-school/567716.md?page=3)