How sad is this? Fourteen percent of female students at Paul Robeson High School in Chicago, Illinois are pregnant. That’s 113 out of 800 girls, or 1 in 8.
So what’s the cause for the school’s growing epidemic?
“It can be a lot of things that are happening in the home or not happening in the home, if you will,” said Principal Gerald Morrow.
“We’re not looking at them like ‘Ooh you made a mistake,’” he said. “We’re looking at how we can get them to the next phase, how can we still get them thinking about graduation?”
According to RadioViceOnline, The Board of Education of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) amended sex education in school back in 2006.
The new policy promised “age-appropriate and medically accurate information concerning the emotional, psychological, physiological, hygienic and social responsibility aspects of family life.”
The program pushed abstinence, but also promised to instruct students on contraception, as well as STD, HIV and pregnancy prevention.
While Paul Robeson HS might be the exception to the rule, and other Chicago public schools pregnancy rates may not be as high, it certainly supports the theory that abstinence isn’t the best approach.
Abstinence-only sex education has lost steam with in recent years, and yet many states continue to support the method because the federal government funds millions of dollars into the program.
Personally speaking, my parents started speaking to me about sex ed when I was still in kindergarten. A little premature, some may say, but I think their speaking to me so early has helped me have a safe and healthy sex life as an adult.
My parents, while they emphasized that I should wait until marriage for sex, were realistic in knowing that would not happen, especially when you consider how many men and women of my generation (I’m 26) are focusing more on their career and traveling the world, as opposed to the more traditional get married and pop out babies mentality.
One detail my mother pushed, which I think was one of the more important things for a healthy sex life, was masturbation. In masturbating, especially as a teenager, not only does one get to pleasure themselves sexually, but it allows you alone time to become acquainted with one’s body. It gives one the opportunity to learn what they like and give into their imagination, free of anyone in the room to judge your sexual urges, nor put you at risk for STDs and pregnancy.
What do you guys think of what’s going on at Paul Robeson HS? What is your opinion as to a method to prevent teenage pregnancy? What was sex ed. like for you way back in the day and how do you think that helped you become the sexual person you are today as an adult? Discuss!
Source: CBS2 Chicago
Comments
The kids are careless. Their parents probably never bothered to bring up the consequences of unprotected sex and now they’re paying the price. Kids don’t care. They didn’t when I was in school and they don’t now. It’s a damn shame. My parents taught me about sex before I even had sex ed (started in the 5th grade). The fear of telling them I got a girl pregnant was enough for me to wear a hat every time. These kids just need a proper sex education. If not by the parents then the schools need to step in a do a better job in teaching the basics as well as negatives that come alone like STD’s. Otherwise the rate of pregnancies will continue to grow exponentially.
And I may be the one person who didn’t like Juno.