Ten- to Fourteen-Year-Olds

Maternity for High School Students--share your thoughts.

While I love a good hot Topic.. this one has me torn. This statement from the article:

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.

What concerns me is.. "unfair and inconsiderate". What's inconsiderate is that the girls getting pregnant are inconsiderate to their own education. The cold hard facts are.. schools are not put into place to work around teenage Mothers.. they are there to educate children. How about a little personal accountibility on the girls behalf?  I just can't deal with this logic..

I guess that coming from NY where pregnancy/postpartum can fall into the disability category, I find it as appalling that girls would be expected to return to school 2 days after giving birth, 5 days after major surgery as I do that women in those states are expected to return to work in that amount of time with no disability compensation.  In NY, women receive disability excuse (and half pay up to a certain maximum) for six weeks after a vaginal birth and eight weeks after a cesarean.   I believe that these young women should be able to have a doctors note excusing them for an appropriate period of time postpartum.  Or, they can be excused from school the rest of the school year and re=enroll for the next school year but treating them as truancy cases is inappropriate.  They've got enough going against them to be a teenager and have a baby, but to make it so that they must choose between abandoning their baby to the care of someone else before their milk even comes in and then come home to HS level homework - it is the baby who will suffer - and dropping out so that their chances of making a decent living for themselves and their babies is just not in anyone's best interest.

Childbirth is a major medical event. I can't imagine anyone going back to work/school 2 days after giving birth. I agree that a doctor's note should be sufficient in excusing the child from school for a period of time. If they do not complete their studies from home they would have to make up the time - perhaps in summer school or by possibly doing the grade over if necessary.  But to label the child truant seems unreasonable....if she'd had any other surgery the absence would be excused.

I do not think it should be the taxpayers job to establish day care centers in schools though.