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According to recent statistics, 86 students at Frayser High School are pregnant or have given birth in the last year, myfoxmemphis.com reported.
The new campaign - called "No Baby!" - is designed to educate both teenage girls and boys about how to prevent and deal with unplanned pregnancies. The program is also tailored to give girls the confidence to "just say no" to sex.
"Right now, these girls don't know how to say 'no,' they're having sex when they don't want to, they just don't know how to say 'no,'" Deborah Hester Harrison with Girls Inc., which is a nonprofit group, told the news station.
Another concern for these young mothers is the lack of prenatal care.
"A lot of these girls aren't developmentally ready to be really effective parents, and that affects the child's development," Marc Goodman-Bryan with the Urban Child Institute said.
Dr. Manny Alvarez, senior managing health editor of FoxNews.com and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Science at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey agrees and said those issues are just the beginning.
"Teen pregnancies are high risk. For some of these girls, the risk factors include premature delivery, pregnancy-induced hypertension and many times, you have a higher incidence of Caesarean sections due to cephalopelvic disproportion, which happens when a the fetus is too large to fit through the pelvis."
Last month, U.S. health officials released new government figures for 2009 showing 39 births per 1,000 girls, ages 15 through 19 - the lowest rate since records have been kept on this issue. Yet, the sobering context is that the teen pregnancy rate is far lower in many other countries.
The most convincing explanation is that contraceptive use is much higher among teens in most Western European countries.
Harrison said the teen pregnancy rate for Memphis fluctuates between 15 and 20 percent, which is almost twice the national average.
In the school's zip code - the pregnancy rate is about 26 percent.
"We're looking at ways to combat it, and we're trying to combat it in the area where the need is the greatest," Harrison said.
In addition to the "No Baby!" campaign, Memphis school officials are also looking at ways to combat this problem by hiring new social workers, putting new programs in place, as well as providing support for teenage moms.
"It's upsetting that we continue to see the rates of teen pregnancy ticking up in certain areas," Alvarez said. "I think we really need to focus on education - that's really the key."
Source: The Associated Press
I want to make it clear that I am not at all trying to object to any of the advice given to girls by this No Baby campaign. The high level of pregnancies is shocking, and I definately hope that this program is successful in helping bring that down.
This article (and society in general) is biased, because it automatically sets girls up to be the victims in this situation. Of course many of them are and I definately do not debate that, but I feel it is highly implied that boys are always the instigators and that they will always be predatious menacing sex fiends. Many who work with modern children will agree that girls are much more agressive and much more eager when it comes to sex then they used to be. I have worked with kids for many years, as a camp counsellor and believe me kids say way more to us than they do to any other adult in their life because they usually never see us again. Girls grow up much faster these days, so many boys and girls are reaching their peak sexual experimentation stages simultaneously.
I most certainly recognize that girls need empowerment to say no! and learn to value and respect their bodies and their sexuality. I also recognize that boys are more often than not the instigators in sexual activity, but I would argue that is because of society's expectations on young men and women to act and behave certain ways.
The problem is that this initiative and this article fails to acknowledge and demoralize the opposing gender. What kinds of programs are there to help young fathers? Isn't a fathers role in raising a child just as vital? The double standard put on boys is that if they want to be seen as popular and cool they need to have sex with lots of girls. But if they don't they are called fags, or grow up with low self esteem because they didn't "score" in high school. I have seen and heard this over and over from so many young kids, but usually it is the parents that are the worst influence.
Just my two cents, dont mean to tread.