TEEN PREGNANCY IN MEMPHIS CITY SCHOOLS

Amid local and national coverage, Memphis City School system has another on-going issue that a ray of light has been shown upon…Teenage Pregnancy. Teenage Pregnancy is nothing new in Memphis or probably in any city, but national media coverage has once again brought it to the fore front and made it a priority among the board and city wide leaders. The problem stemmed from a news story which showed Frayser High School as having 90 children pregnant at one time. Although statistical data has not been thoroughly trended, the numbers are unsettling and show a need for plan to be in place. Superintendent Kriner Cash said in a recent news conference that the number is incorrect. He stated that in actuality the girls are in different stages of either being pregnant or have already delivered. He said that because of a program geared towards teens; a lot of students were transferred to Frayser High to receive the needed benefits of that program. Surrounded by City & Shelby County mayors, AC Wharton & Mark Luttrell, Cash said “In MCS, we have an adolescent parenting program that serves 85 to 100 young people; but it’s not big enough. We need a bigger boat.” Superintendent Cash also talked about a few other MCS programs put in place to combat the teen pregnancy problem, including one such that ensures students who are out of school because of giving childbirth, return to school and not fall behind their studies after giving birth. MCS just launched an awareness campaign in conjunction with Girls Incorporated of Memphis called “No Baby”. Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell announced that the Shelby County Office of Children & Youth has joined with Memphis City Schools to help tackle the teenage pregnancy problem that has once again plagued the city of Memphis. Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital’s president and CEO, Meri Armour pledged a $4 million dollar federal grant that included boys ages 13 – 18 in a teen pregnancy prevention program. This pilot program will target certain areas in Memphis, beginning with North Memphis. All three entities agree that the problem does not begin nor end in Frayser High School exclusively. They believe that this is a countywide problem. The Urban Child Institute recently published its Data Book 2010 The State of Children in Memphis and Shelby County. In 2002 the birth rate per 1,000 females age 10 to 19 for black females in Shelby County was 38.3 per thousand, but increased dramatically to 62.6 per thousand in 2008, and increase of 63% and for white females in Shelby County, there was a 19% increase over the same period of time, 19.2 per thousand to 22.8 per thousand. In 2010, more than 2,100 girls ages 10 to 19 gave birth in Shelby County. Researchers say Shelby County’s teen pregnancy rate is 25% higher than New Orleans and twice of Louisville, Kentucky. Memphis City School Board Member Tomeka Hart says that the school board needs to reevaluate the sex education curriculum to find out if it is working. “Maybe what we are doing now is not the best way to teach students.” “We have a curriculum in place that seems to be comprehensive but we don’t know if it’s being implemented district wide,” said Martavius Jones, a school board member. The Memphis City School Board members are worried that they really don’t know what is being taught in the “Family Life” curriculum, which is abstinence, based, and has ordered Superintendent Kriner Cash to ensure all MCS teachers are indeed following the current school curriculum while statistical data is being founded and evaluated. The teen pregnancy issue is nothing new in Memphis and Shelby County, however the trend seems to be escalating rather than decreasing or even remaining the same. I think while we are launching programs and educating students about sex and its affects, parental education and involvement is an absolute necessity. Foundational thoughts and truths should be taught at home. We need to make sure that parents are accountable to their kids. I am with the old saying that it takes a village to raise a child. Tonya Davidson