Maternity leave sought for teen girls
 

Soon-to-be-moms at East High School ask for four weeks of maternity leave.
By Jeremy P. Meyer
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 01/07/2008 02:00:49 AM MST



Kayla Lewis, a senior at East High School, asked school-board members last month to establish maternity leave for students who are new mothers. ( Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post )
Pregnant students in a Denver high school are asking for at least four weeks of maternity leave so they can heal, bond with their newborns and not be penalized with unexcused absences.

The request is unusual in Colorado's public schools, where districts tend to deal with pregnant students or new moms with specialized programs or individualized education plans.

Denver Public Schools has no districtwide policy, leaving it up to schools to work out plans for students to continue their education.

Two counselors from East High School approached the school board last month, saying the policy at their school is unfair and inconsiderate because it forces new moms to return to school the day after being discharged from the hospital or face being charged with unexcused absences.

"My initial reaction is if we are punishing girls like that, that is unacceptable," said Nicole Head, one of the counselors who brought the matter to the school board last month. "We've got to do something."

East High School administrators could not be reached for comment over the winter break, but district officials say they are reviewing the policy on absences to make it "friendlier" to new moms, said DPS spokesman Alex Sanchez.

Kayla Lewis, who is five months pregnant and a senior at East, requested that the board establish maternity leave for students at a Dec. 20 public hearing.

"After you have the baby, your body needs time to heal," the 18-year-old said.

That is true, said Dr. Sarah Grope, pediatrician at HealthOne's Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver.

"To just assume that two days after having a baby they can go back to school is ridiculous at best," Grope said. "During that time, they should be able to do their schoolwork and give time to bond with their children."

School-board member Michelle Moss was baffled that schools were giving girls unexcused absences after birth.

"It's critical that these young women have a chance to bond with their babies," Moss said. "Maybe we do need a policy. Clearly, as a district, we have to look at what is going on with our young women. We've got to look at the birth-control issues and teen pregnancy and how we best help them deal with it and still graduate."

Denver has one of the highest teen-pregnancy rates in the state. Of every 1,000 girls ages 15 to 17, 54.5 will become pregnant in the city, compared with 24.3 throughout Colorado, according to state health statistics.

The district has a school for pregnant teens and new moms, Florence Crittenton School, but it has a waiting list. Plus, many students want to remain at the school where they started, said Head, the counselor at East.

Cherry Creek, Adams 12, Jefferson County and Douglas County school districts have policies in which students work with counselors and principals to devise plans that will keep them in school.

Several districts have special schools with child-care services for new moms. Others have programs that allow students to receive high-school credit.

"When a girl tells us she is pregnant, we advise her to work one on one with her counselor and go from there to see what they can work out," said Michelle Ancell, spokeswoman for Cherry Creek Schools.

"The counselor plays middleman between the principal and the student," said Melissa Reeves of Jefferson County Schools, who added that the district has started a computer-based credit-recovery program that students can use during evening hours.

Douglas County has had a program for 19 years called WINGS, or Winning in New Growth Situations, that offers support and instruction for the girls once a week, allowing them to earn elective credits in nutrition and parenting. The program has 20 students, said coordinator Susan Anderson.

The district has a school that begins at 4:30 p.m. for new parents that is attached to Highlands Ranch High School. Students also are able to stay in their schools, but that is not easy for many new moms, she said.

"Day care is very difficult, hard to come by and expensive," Anderson said. "We just work really hard to make sure kids graduate high school. We know it's so important."

Teen mothers face a challenging future, with many dropping out. A third of teen moms receive their high-school diplomas and 1.5 percent get college degrees before they turn 30, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

"If there are young mothers asking for maternity leave, the board should listen to them," said Lori Casillas, executive director of the Colorado Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting, and Prevention. "If they think it is a barrier to graduation, the board should look at that."

Her organization advocates that schools provide child-care services for new moms. Too many girls drop out after giving birth, and schools must do something to keep them, Casillas said. ( some schools are nothing more than day care centers anyhew --so they might as well have a nursury on the tax payers dime)

Students at one high school in southern Colorado wanted to set up a child-care center, but the principal forbade it, saying it would encourage teen pregnancy, she said.

"There is no evidence that has ever happened," Casillas said. "I don't think schools have been proactive at creating policies that encourage young mothers to remain in school. Schools need to say, 'What if you do come back, then what?'

"Schools need to say, 'This is what we do to support your learning.' That's not happening."

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7899096

Next the fathers will want a "family leave" -- How do you make up four weeks of missed courses and still expect to graduate with your class? And what about providing some kind of solid home tutoring policy while she is out for those 4 weeks?

Ummm...NO.

I work, pay taxes, and pay lots of money to a babysitter. I'm not paying for someone else's babysitter, too. I don't think these girls should get a free pass because they pulled a Jamie Lynn.

On the other hand, who knows, it could provide some measure of "birth control" within the school. Instead of these girls dropping out and never being seen around school again (there could be some "cool mystique" for those left in classes all day), they'll still be in circulation, probably exhausted and irritated, if the baby had a bad night, and they'll share the "real" stories of what having a baby is like, versus everyone else who can still talk about all their free time and social schedules. The set-up could require the moms to spend their lunch breaks or certain times of the day in the center and could also provide some parenting/coping courses, which I can only imagine 16, 17 year olds will desperately need. And I particularly see how trying something "different" like this might be a positive because:
:eek:

I suppose if it really was that common, they could have a daycare center and the girls AND THE FATHERS should have to take turns staffing it. Even if that means they have to take an extra semester or two because they had to spend a few free periods a day babysitting.

Oh, EXCELLENT point!!!!! Yes, that might definitely have some "ripple-effect" in the behaviors out there. Ok, big stud, you got her pregnant, now, this is how you change a dirty diaper...

Good idea...but then taxpayers would pay for having licenced staff *wink*

This whole thing is tho...it's almost a damned if you do, damned if you don't proposition.

And I honestly feel when doing things like this, it really undermines the already low bar of the educational system that we have in this country.

Not only would the ones in question get 4 weeks (provided that there are no complications) but they need to miss days to go to the doc and so forth...


I think that this program isn't encouraging them to go and get back into school and moreso pushing them towards dropping out...


If this plan is well thought out, I would like to see a provision in there somewhere that shows that while the mother is out, she get materials from the school that would allow her to keep up with what's going on in class....


Reality of it tho....is how many would really take advantage of that program?

Licensed staff, my ass. You created it, you learn how to care for it. Babysitters don't have to be licensed, and I would think there would be a way to get around calling it an actual "daycare" center.

There are and if you try to find ways to get around it it leaves you less to work with should something go wrong.

I like where you want to go...but think about it...once something bad happens to just one child in one of these facilities and the first question that comes up is:

Were they licenced?

Not that it changes matters any but what kind of recourse would you have if you knowingly left your child in the hands of an incapable teen (on school <read: local gov't property> grounds) and something happens?

Granted you may be onto something but it's a huge risk IMO.

ETA: Just did a bit of digging...Baltimore has a school that dealt with this issue for years and the founder of the school just recently passed: http://wjz.com/topstories/Laurence.G....2.431429.html

WAIVER

To Whom It May Concern:

Your dumb ass got pregnant, and now to stay in school, you must take part in the on-school daycare program. This requires you to staff, as well as leave your child in the care of, said on-school daycare center. If you get hurt by one of the other dumbasses' kids who are in the center, or if your child gets hurt by one of the other dumbasses who staff the center, the school has no liability. Next time, wrap it up.

[Excess legal jargon here.]

Sign Here X_________________________________

damn....just............damn......AF :D

just so wrong....but I LIKES!!

PPssssst...do they allow spankings and other types of corporal punishment to keep these lil bad ass kids in line here too?

Google "day care in high schools" and you can find some places where this is already taking place. Here are just a couple of the links:
http://www.d321.k12.id.us/~Central/daycare.html
http://www.booth.k12.nf.ca/guidance/daycare.htm (I particularly like the graphic on the top right side of this page ;))
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/1999/12...are991201.html (this one mentions the possible "deterrent" effect I mentioned earlier :))

AF,
I think I love you

^^^REBOUND!!!! ;) ;) ;)

Don't forget this:
Precisely. While I love this idea, I just know that it wouldn't be feasible. While they wouldn't be licensed, the insurance of the school would go through the roof if you had an on-site day care program staffed by dumbass hornball adolescents. Now if it was off-site, then I don't know how that would affect things.

Thank you. As much as I enjoy amusing myself with things like this, I must say...YOU WIN.

I don't win. You're the one that suggested the fathers take part in it, too.:p And that's only fair. I don't understand why girls are always the ones to pay for stupid, hormone-driven mistakes that boys make.

I totally agree. If you think you are responsible enough to engage in sex, you better be responsible enough to raise a child! That's the risk you take.

and what do you do if one of those staffer got pregnant on site.....?

as they say..it takes 2...

I have heard of on-site daycare centers at high schools-- one of the schools in Evansville has one. It was the home-ec classes that helped to staff it- you could take an early childhood education class and get to work there.

However I heard that they had to stop allowing the Moms (and Dads I guess) access to the daycare during the school day because it was becoming "cool" for someone to leave class to go check on their kids. So now they can only go during study hall or lunch.

I do like the waiver idea, though.

To speak about the part for Maternity Leave...
My school district had schools that they would send pregnant girls to, if they wanted to go. My friend went to one, but it had 5 flights of stairs and no elevators so she whould have been better off at our school. She was allowed time after she had her son. I am not sure how much, but she had to do all of the work assigned to her.

My dad worked at an alternative High School for a while in B'more. I think the daycare staff there was licensed by the state, as well as CC students who were getting there certificate in child care operations or what have you.

I find it ironic that the mothers are forced to struggle, but the fathers get off scott free. :confused: And I bet Colorado has one of those abistinence-only sex ed programs. :rolleyes: That's working out well, don't you think?

Four weeks seems like too much, but returning the day after being discharged from the hospital is way too soon.

There should be no school leave for bonding purposes, IMO. Sick days to physically recover, sure, and you moms on GC know better than I how long it would take. A girl who wants to stay exactly on track with her class needs to miss as few days as possible.

Students can make up credits in summer school or night school every place, right? Or worst case, repeat the grade without cost to them?

So basically, there's no real penalty other than lose of academic credit if you withdraw. So any girl who wanted too could take a semester or a year's worth of leave to bond; she just couldn't expect to advance at school as if she were present and mastering material.

I'm also looking at it from the teacher's perspective. Unless she was extremely academically motivated (which isn't a trait I associate with teen pregnancy in most cases), she's not going to be able to get caught up and learn the new material when she gets back. The grading period is probably a wash anyway.

IMO, the best position is to waive any truancy laws or policies and just let them come back the next quarter or semester or whatever. Or arrange credit by examination for the girls who have their kids at the end of one semester. If you can pass the final, you get credit.

Do you really think that teenagers get pregnant because they don't know how babies are made or don't know they can buy condoms at the store?

It's not that I think we only need abstinence only programs: I just think it's wrong to assume that sex ed format contributes to pregnancy.

I think we could count on one hand the number of teenagers who got pregnant this year who didn't know where they could get condoms. I think they just didn't bother because they didn't want to stop what they were doing right then.

It's a breakdown someplace for sure, but I'm not sure it's at the curriculum level.

AF is my hero.

Not only that, but many kids that age think they are invincible and "it won't happen to me".

I said that because this adminstration seems hell bent on keeping ALL the information about contraception from kids. It could be both reasons, for all I know ("you can't get pregnant the first time you have sex, etc. type of reasonings).

I do think that there should be some other format to keep teen PARENTS in school (not just mom, but dad too).

I was up and about two days after giving birth (with an uncomplicated vaginal birth). I was able to resume normal daily actvities about 2 weeks later. Four weeks is a bit much I think for a regular birth, but it depends on the mom's and baby's condition, post partum.

AF: *applause*
lol..

What does the federal administration really have to do with what sex ed program a district or state uses? The most they could do is not offer additional federal funding for other programs which isn't the same as prohibiting them. The vast majority of education funding in at the state level. I think a lot of people don't really understand it's kind of a supplementary kind of think funding through welfare, as near as I can tell. School districts can still do whatever, unless STATE law prohibits it.

Do you really think we'd have had fewer teen pregnancies if Kerry had won? Really?? So who in the present field of candidates can be depended on to get the kids to wrap it up?

Wouldn't delivering a baby fall under the school's "major medical incident" policy or something like that? How do they treat a student who had their appendix removed? Or some other type of surgery? Seems like that could apply in the pregnancy situation as well (regarding healing medically...bonding with the baby, well...not even all adults get the luxury of taking 4 weeks off from work I'm sure. Some might have to go back to work a lot sooner than that). Seems like doing it that way would even the playing field for all students (how fair would it be for pregnant mothers to have 4 weeks of excused absences when no one else has that opportunity?)


PsychTau

Medically, if there are no gross complications, then the young woman can resume normal activities upon discharge. For the psyche of the mother and child health, a month is roughly the correct amount of time to build the natural and instinctual cues for human babies--i.e. breast feeding vs. bottle. A child doesn't wean until ~3-4 months for bottle feedings.

Young mothers for the result of youthfulness have children that are at high risk for starvation, illnesses, decreased birth weights, developmental and learning disabilities because this critical connection period is missed.

The reality, if one does not clean up this problem for at least a month and the day-care mandatory service (love that idea), your next problem will be increased risk of sexually transmitted infections with the transmission to mother and infant.

4 weeks is such a simple fix, I would be willing to pilot it for 4 years. Then, I LOVE the mandatory day-care in-service with parenting classes, etc.--Alphafrog for President!!!

But how in the world will a kid miss a month of class and come back to the same class and pass?

If it were just a question of working at a part time job, it's easy to see how one could take a month off and pick up right where you left off.

But if you miss a month of Algebra II, you'd missed a month of Algebra II. The class will be doing stuff that you are a month behind on.

Just stay out and take it later. Or stay out and repeat the grade with the mandatory child care as an elective.

The same way that they do if they have major surgery, cancer, a severely broken leg, etc. In those situations, the schools are required to provide a home teacher a couple times a week, aren't they?

By law, any working female is entitled to 12 weeks with no penalty from their employer (if they can afford to go that long without pay). It's called the Family and Medical Leave Act. Short term disability will pay for 6 weeks for a vaginal birth, 8 for a c-section. 4 weeks is certainly reasonable. After having a baby, you go for a checkup at 2 weeks to have stitches removed and then again at 6 weeks to get approval for normal activity. I was clearly told not to lift more than 10 pounds (and I guarantee my kids' backpacks weigh more than that!). You're never sleeping more than 2 or 3 hours at a time at 4 weeks and that delays the healing of your body too.

Ultimately, it's to society's benefit for these young women to continue their education. You can pay for a few extras while they're in high school (like home school teachers and day care) or you can pay for them and their kids their whole lives because they get into the welfare cycle. I'd rather do the former. And yes, I'd add parenting classes as a "7th hour" or something to get the day care so that the young mother gets some support and instruction.

It's so easy to say they were stupid to get pregnant, but the only form of birth control that is 100% effective is abstinence and the statistics show that the vast majority of teens are having sex, so we have to be realistic here. And, as purely anecdotal evidence, the girls in honors math who got pregnant were forced to get abortions in my day because their parents weren't allowing them to "screw up" their lives with a teenage pregnancy. Given that's the other option, is this what we want to reward?

Trust me, algebra 2 does not quarter fast at most high schools. Most of these kids are taking classes that are making them do presentation projects demonstrating what they have learned and how to implement it.

I don't know if Colorado has exit examinations to graduate, but if they do, the cumulative measured knowledge is just not learned once going to high school. If should have started in elementary and middle school.

The ages this report says was 15-17 years old. That is 9th grade to 12th grade.

No one has begun to ask how these young people are thinking about having sex... But that is another thread.

not by law, no...and that therein is the crux of the situation...the student has to make arrangements to make up work missed. The school's main responsibility is at the least send work home to the student. But then that may differ from district to district but I have never heard of it being mandatory for a school to provide a home teacher for sick students ( or many more would be playing sick for more time off...heheh)



But seee...it's as you said...any WORKING female. Any female that is providing an income to a household that she is running...Presumably a working person doing more than 20 hours a week...that vs a teenager still living under her parents' roof.

A few things to keep in mind


- Is used for job security has nothing to do with securing your education. You decide to take time off from something that is mostly 'free' in this country (high school) that is on you.

- Not to mention is used if the employer has a certain amount of employees and the ones that qualify have to have been working there for at least a year.

so essentially it's almost no reason to grant that for a teen when they have plenty of opportunities to make that time up...again there is the option of summer school or night school...there are plenty of people out there who had kids very early in life and found a way to do it (make up for lost time) so why should the bar be lowered any further to allow this generation of soft crybabies to do it?

You made your bed...sleep in it and be responsible...life isn't about getting it easy (easier either) ...everytime you lay there and the 2 of you agree to allow the penis to enter the vagina, one has to consider how much change your life will go thru with each stroke.


And on that note....

Good night all.

And I think a teen could expect accommodations in her work place.

But the student can return and retake the classes whenever she wants to. And to me that make a difference.

Pregnancy is pretty controllable is you want it to be and certainly no high school student has to have sex. (would you provide home teachers to students who had elective surgery during the year during the school year too? Say a 16 year old schedules her cosmetic surgery for October? I don't mean that those are really equivalent, but maternity leave for teens isn't the same as emergency surgery or cancer.)

I don't think we've hit the point as a society at which we treat the decision to have a baby in high school like we treat the same decision by adult women.

I don't think the rest of us should bear increased cost for education when the student already has the option of repeating the class the next year at no cost to her.

Oh, I think I love you. <3 ;)

It is the job of the state to educate, and the right belongs to each child in that state. And we all know that with rights come responsibilities. Ok, so you make a stupid, hormonal decision and end up preggers. It is your responsibility to make use of your right to an education. If you can't keep up, then you should withdraw until the next year and take your classes again. That is, if your education means that much to you.

I had a friend in college who got pregnant. She was an ok student, but when she found out she was pregnant, she really got her butt in gear. For the last three semesters of college (pregnant, having the baby, and then taking care of the baby), she made the President's List. Why? She said it was because she was getting her degree come hell or high water. She learned to organize, maximize her time, and get things done. I think if the pregnant teens felt that way, they'd do anything they could to get things done ON THEIR OWN, not trying to get more time to "bond" or "heal" or whatever, and certainly not advocating for care that I as a taxpayer would have to cover. Get a grip.

But I still think that some repercussions should fall to the father, as well. I don't know how that would work... I don't think the schools could not let them register, but if they could, that would be great.

One thing about your college friend....note too that people tend to dig a little harder when it's something they are paying for *wink*

Not to downplay it or anything like that...matter of fact BIG kudos because a lot of people tend to put that on hold.

But high schoolers in most cases don't really have a lot of finanical responsibilities, thus that's probably a part of why this came up...public education is free...you are free to drop in and out as much as the system will alow...but I bet that if you had to pay for it and make it worth what you are paying for...that whole attitude would change.

We all know that young teens can choose not to have sex. We hope the adults they look to teach them that. The fact is, it does not happen and young teens thing it is okay for them to have sex for whatever reason. Cause prevention is failing. Because the baby is coming whether we like it or not.

I do think there should be some repercussions for a young woman AND man who have a baby together, period. I do not know what those are, but there should be.

The reasons why the schools probably will not allow students to repeat or retake classes is because it is costly to remediate.

May I make a small change please?

Alpha Frog has already said everything I wanted to say. :)

FWIW, my high school has a day care center and it was staffed by the girls/boys who had children enrolled there (with the exception of maybe 2 people who were full-time staff members). Students using the day care services took a class called something Family Life Skills (or something to that effect) that basically involved them staffing the day care center.