Maternity leave sought for teen girls

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

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?