Pregnant Teens

It is definitely alarming that such a high percentage of students are pregnant in this school, be it expecting or had a child already. The school also gives a certain lunch discount to students who are pregnant.

I could not give much of my opinion regarding my own school life and sex education here in the U.S. as I have no experience schooling in this country before going to college. Even so, I could relate this issue very much to the schools in my country; there is also an alarming increase in students who are involved in sexual activity and getting pregnant. What is worse regarding this issue is as the number increases, so does the number of abortions and newborn babies being thrown into the trash or toilet as they are the 'love child'.

I absolutely support sex education in our young generation today. However, I strongly believe that our system in educating our children about sex does not come with the consequences of sex, be it bad or good. Our children should not only know about safe sex, but they should also know the consequences of getting a girl pregnant, or being pregnant, and how these could affect their lives greatly. We should also emphasize much more on STDs, and the risk of death. How could we decrease the number of pregnancies and death of our young children due to STDs if we are ENCOURAGING our children to have safe sex? They should be taught of the consequences greatly and not emphasize only on how to have safe sex.

In the video, I could observe that the public school is like any other average public schools. I might be mistaken, but there is a possibilty that most of the students in this school are African American. Based on history, African American are usually (not all) more economically distressed. Then again, NOT all African Americans are committing crimes, but they are more inclined to do so due to their economic distress and available options around them that allows them to get quick money. There are African American students who are so much more successful and smart than other races or ethnicity, but I am sure that growing up in a community with a high crime rate and pregnancy rate is difficult as they are more 'inclined' to take the other road; hence the invisible strings are tightening on them.

The same thing goes about sex and pregnancy. Even though girls in this school are aware of how many of their friends are pregnant due to 'unsafe' sex, these girls are still more inclined to be pregnant themselves as well due to the invisible string 'tightening' on them, no matter how hard they try to not get involved in unsafe sex. Yes, there might be girls that will be able to not get themselves pregnant, but the inclination to do so will always be there as long as the invisible string is attached to them. These girls who succeed are those who are able to take control of those invisible strings attached to them.

Other than that, one of the commenters had also mentioned about the discounted lunch policy that will be given to pregnant students. Though this may sound silly, but poorer students might just get themselves pregnant just to get a cheaper lunch. Therefore, the school should not be taking steps that actually ENCOURAGE the students to get themselves pregnant. The school should be giving classes to those students who are pregnant or support group, and not a cheaper lunch. The cheaper lunch, is another invisible string, that are attached to other girls who are not pregnant. They might consider to get pregnant (this string is tightening on them) as they will think that "I will get a cheaper lunch and get to eat more for less if I am pregnant!" Once again, not all girls in the school will get themselves pregnant, but the inclination to do so is, and will always be there.

Therefore, the students are definitely not completely 'free' to choose whether to get pregnant or not, and how to deal with it as long as these invisible strings are affecting them greatly.