Gloucester High School – No Room at The Student Day Care Center

An article in the Gloucerter Times reports that the High School Day Care is overflowing. With the recent national focus on this particular city in Massachusetts due to the discovery of a pact where 17 girls under the age of 16 became pregnant should not come as such as shock, considering the encouragement that is given minors in this state to procreate. The school principal credits the low drop out rate to the fact that there is a day care on campus for students. High School Day Care can be found in most city schools across the bay state, right next to the Planned Parenthood office (or health clinic) which hands out contraceptives. Now they are seriously asking; “What went wrong?” This is not exactly rocket science. The presence of a Day Care for students on campus only provides only provides encouragement for other teens, as they would tend too see pregnancy at 13 or 14 as “normal”. A baby, in this case, is not seen as a responsibility, rather as a cuddly new toy. Adolescent minds are not yet fully developed and are incapable of making the distinction to what is and what is not acceptable as a life choice.

The only reasonable option is stress to these students that a baby is a responsibility. In order to do this, the day care facility should be off campus. The notion that handing out condoms and birth control has curbed teen pregnancy is the state is absurd. (See rising teen pregnancy rates running across socio-economic lines). Sex education should include instructions on where to obtain said birth control, or other related services, not provide the aforementioned to students on campus. The practice of having on-site distribution of birth control has given permission, not protection to these students. Additionally, within this program, the consequences should be highlighted to both male and female teens. Understanding that there are risks of STDs, the risk of teen pregnancy affects both genders, young men should understand that there is no statute of limitations when it comes to child support. Those young women who think they will be able to continue onto higher education should be made to understand that yes, it is possible, but, that it may be difficult to pay off student loans, run a single parent household, hold a job and pay day care costs.

Suggestion: Move the day-care off campus – allowing teen mothers to continue their education, while deglamorizing the process for the rest of the student body. Alternately, provide a community service program for young teens, as a credit courses. Students would volunteer at local animal shelters and/or rescue league. This would fulfill the cute and cuddly requirement and instill a larger sense of responsibility.

The school districts will argue about expense, however, day care operation and the inclusion of the same at high schools and middle schools, are not free to the taxpayer. Additionally, the argument that an on-site daycare increases graduations rate is absurd. Urban Mass. State high schools show overall low graduation rates Mass DOE tables showing state municipalities reporting rates under 60%. What percentage of that statistic can be attributed to the side effects of rearing children at the age of 14 and being able to complete high school given the burden of parenting? To be fair, Gloucester has an impressive 84.8% graduation rate, which is above average, yet, with the Day care in place, it is still not a stellar performance. It should also be noted that those schools showing less than 80% graduation rates also have Day Care facilities installed on campus. Teaching responsibility to both genders with reasonable instructions on how to obtain all services currently being performed on campus, taking steps to deglamourize teen pregnancy by removing campus day care and condom distribution, would reap benefits to both the school district and the taxpayer in the long run. One should also consider the fact that this practice only serves to denigrate the female student - in that perfect course, where students are taught the ABC's of STD's, and the avoidance of teen pregnancy through the use of birth control, the inequality of the teen pregnancy process should be made clear. While the teen female must provide all care for the child - struggle through college - if able to attend and lower her expectations in general, the male student, although possibly faced with 18 plus years of child support payments, will go on to college, and generally have opportunities which will be denied the female.