Maternity leave sought for teen girls

[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.

[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?

[AKA_Monet]

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?

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.

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.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by AGDee

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?

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)

Originally Posted by AGDee

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.

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?

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.

[UGAalum94]

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.

[scbelle]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

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.

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.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by scbelle

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.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

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.

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.

[DaemonSeid]

May I make a small change please?

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

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 **UNPROTECTED** sex for whatever reason.

[Honeykiss1974]

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.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

May I make a small change please?

You're living in fantasy land if you think that all forms of birth control are 100% effective. I've had unprotected sex once in my entire lifetime and have had 3 pregnancies (one of those miscarried). Yes, 1 pregnancy that ended in miscarriage while on the pill and 1 from condoms and foam together. Thankfully I was an adult and married, but it happened nonetheless, when we definitely weren't planning for it.

I still think that the less interruption in a child's education, the more likely they are to finish. No, I don't have statistics to back that up, it just seems logical to me. Why do you assume that a teen mom is living at home? Do you not know kids who were thrown out of the house when they got pregnant?

I'm also a little stunned by the assumption that any kid who gets pregnant must be too stupid to keep up with their studies. If they can keep up with the 4 weeks of homework while they stay home, then why shouldn't they be allowed to stay home? It seems like the majority of you just want to punish these young women rather than encourage them to strive for a positive future in spite of their obstacles.

ETA: What school district allows a kid to drop out of school for a semester? Perhaps allowing that would be the "maternity leave" that is needed. But, around here, if you miss 10 days of school in one semester, you are truant and you and your parents can be ticketed and/or arrested. You also lose the ability to get your drivers license. I think the law in Colorado would make it possible for a kid to drop out for a semester rather than trying to return to school 24 hours after having a baby.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

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

In the districts where I've taught, kids can keep taking classes as many times as they want to until they get credit or until they turn 21, I'm pretty sure. There's absolutely no cost to the kid for classes taken during the regular school day and year or for going back for a fifth or sixth year of high school.

At my school if a young women got pregnant and didn't want to or couldn't return quickly, she could take whole year of maternity leave and just come back the next year in the fall. (Her parents might have to pretend they were home schooling to avoid truancy laws if she were younger than the legal drop out age, which I think is 16, but the school system wouldn't do anything punitive to her.)

AGDee, I don't want to punish them, but I don't want to increase the cost and burden of their education to other people. If a girl could do four weeks of homework independently at home and come back ready, I'd be all for giving them the time off, but I know from working with our homebound teachers that that never happens in our district. The kids struggle to do the assignments without direct instruction from a subject area teacher and when they come back, you basically have to reteach them everything they've missed. Why not give them more time off and just have them repeat? Or if they did understand all the work, do credit by examination for the course?

I understand what you are saying about interruption in school, but I also know that giving any high school kid a month off is a pretty big interruption anyway.

And it's been my experience that I've never had a super academically motivated kid in high school who had a baby while in high school. It's not a question of ability; they weren't dumb, but they weren't the kids who were going to do four weeks of work on their own. Heck, if I had a baby, I doubt I'd be as interested in anything other than the baby, either.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

In the districts where I've taught, kids can keep taking classes as many times as they want to until they get credit or until they turn 21, I'm pretty sure. There's absolutely no cost to the kid for classes taken during the regular school day and year or for going back for a fifth or sixth year of high school.

At my school if a young women got pregnant and didn't want to or couldn't return quickly, she could take whole year of maternity leave and just come back the next year in the fall. (Her parents might have to pretend they were home schooling to avoid truancy laws if she were younger than the legal drop out age, which I think is 16, but the school system wouldn't do anything punitive to her.)

Looks like we were posting at the same time. I think it's harder to "fake" home schooling than your post indicates. And, some of this may vary by state.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I'm also a little stunned by the assumption that any kid who gets pregnant must be too stupid to keep up with their studies. If they can keep up with the 4 weeks of homework while they stay home, then why shouldn't they be allowed to stay home? It seems like the majority of you just want to punish these young women rather than encourage them to strive for a positive future in spite of their obstacles.

ETA: What school district allows a kid to drop out of school for a semester? Perhaps allowing that would be the "maternity leave" that is needed. But, around here, if you miss 10 days of school in one semester, you are truant and you and your parents can be ticketed and/or arrested. You also lose the ability to get your drivers license. I think the law in Colorado would make it possible for a kid to drop out for a semester rather than trying to return to school 24 hours after having a baby.

While I agree that young people who just make a misjudgment before they have sex does not preclude them from being wholly ignorant and stupid, many of them are in numerous areas--i.e. Britney Spears' sister as an example. If they lapse in good judgement that affects another life, what other areas would they lapse in, also? And failing school precedes these kinds of things as measured from a "public health" perspective. A young girl's esteem drops, she makes errors in judgment, leading to self-destructive behavior, then affecting another life. That is the course in the cycle of poverty...

Poverty robs civilized society of its maximum potential... Since it is morally wrong to hurt the poor, we are asked to help them the best we can--hopefully devoid of judgment. But, when harm is done, we are left to provide consequences for people's inappropriate behavior.

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

In the districts where I've taught, kids can keep taking classes as many times as they want to until they get credit or until they turn 21, I'm pretty sure. There's absolutely no cost to the kid for classes taken during the regular school day and year or for going back for a fifth or sixth year of high school.

At my school if a young women got pregnant and didn't want to or couldn't return quickly, she could take whole year of maternity leave and just come back the next year in the fall. (Her parents might have to pretend they were home schooling to avoid truancy laws if she were younger than the legal drop out age, which I think is 16, but the school system wouldn't do anything punitive to her.)

That's interesting. I have long forgotten what the truancy rules are. So, I brought up what my opinion of the alternative could be, and that is the best I can come up with.

I don't know what to do, I have never been pregnant or had a child. But, from my friends that do have children, and what the educators and pediatricians say, that spending those formative years with your child are very important.

[SWTXBelle]

For what it is worth, I've made sure my girls understand that if you have sex, you might get pregnant. No ifs, ands or buts - sex COULD equal pregnancy, even with birth control. They have a more hands-on experience with babies than most. They saw their now-6 year old brother being born, and have been around babies since they were 10 and 12. My 18 year old thinks that hiring the boys(6 and 4 now) out for a weekend could go a long way to curbing teen pregnancy rates!