I can't really think of any "good" way to find out your teenage daughter is pregnant, can you? But the shenanigans at one charter school in Louisiana certainly ranks up on the list of "worst ways" to discover you're about to be a grandmother. When officials at the public school suspect a student is pregnant, they force her to get a pregnancy test.
Oh, and if she refuses or if she tests positive, the poor kid is kicked out of the Delhi Charter School. Pardon the rather crass response here: but are these people friggin nuts?
I'm going to say it again: I don't want my daughter ending up a teen mom. I would like her to have the advantages that come with being a grown woman with a career before the baby fairy comes a callin'.
But life happens. Kids happen. And if it came to pass, here's how I would want it to go down: I'd want her to take the pregnancy test at home ... not with some judgmental physician chosen by the school (part of Delhi's rules) hovering just outside the bathroom stall. She's sure to be under enough stress finding out she's pregnant; she doesn't need more.
What she would need is me, her mom, there to comfort her and help her start to plan our next steps as a family. And you had better believe that plan would include doing everything possible to ensure she stayed in school and got her high school diploma.
Pregnancy still ranks as the number one reason teenage girls drop out of school. The burden high school dropouts put on the economy is extraordinary -- by some estimates it's as much as $8 billion on the shoulders of the American taxpayer -- and then you have to add in the emotional costs. It's bad for the teen, bad for her baby, bad for the community. And yet, surveys of those who dropped out have shown the majority would have stuck with it until graduation if they'd just had some adult support to make sure it happened.
What's happening in Delhi, Louisiana right now is being challenged by the ACLU for its likely illegality because the school receives public funding. But this type of discrimination against public teens shouldn't be practiced anywhere -- even private schools -- unless the message we want to send our kids is "we wish you the absolute worst in life." Who really wants to tell their kid that?
What would you do if your kid's school forced her to take a pregnancy test?
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Comments 133
If this were to ever happen to my step daughter I would go balistic. You can't force my child to do anything. these people are out of their minds. If she ever ends up pregnant we will deal with it as a family. She will have to stay in school as well.
My hs did this to a friend of mine in the 80s.
Holy Cow! This can't possibly be legal and as far as I am concerned it is an invasion of privacy and imoral. Who the heck does the school think they are.. they are only a school. How dare they. What would I do if my school was forcing pregnancy tests, speak out against it and force them to change policy or withdraw her from that school and either home school or enroll in one that doesnt practice this type of unfair treatment. Unbelievable.. This country is really disappointing me these days!!
seems like an invasion of privacy
Ok here I go they are wrong why? Because they judging. How many of those admins were teen parents I wonder> I wouldnt want my boys to make me a grandmom in their teens but if it happens I wont judge them. But they will be taking responsiblity for the baby they just created. If they decide to keep it you best believe they are marrying the girl and getting a job. If I have a daughter that school would be toast. @ smith they used to do worse in the 50's and before that. Of course many girls were married by their teens in those days.
Well, first of all, it's a charter school, which means it was chosen by the kids/parents - so one has to assume, the people who choose it, don't have a problem with this policy. If you don't like, don't choose that service.
Second, I can see the reasoning behind this, though I do agree that it unfairly impacts the girls who are pregnant as opposed to the boys who got them that way (if they both attend the school). Teen pregnancy, just like teen suicide, is 'contagious' , so by removing a pregnant teen, they cut down on "omg, you're getting soooooo much attention, that's so cool!!!" . I don't have a problem with refusing to have pregnant students, for that reason.
I have both a teen son and daughter. I would be outraged! Isn't there laws that could stop them from discriminating like that. May I add if the girl is targeted like that I want the boy to be also! Rather it be a my teen boy or a teen boy who got mine pregnant. I hope I've taught my kids right and how important it is to wait but teens are unpredictable and not always smart, things happen. I know that I would not sit down for it I would put up everything I had to sue and pay for lawyers. I would do that also in defense of a teen girl who wasn't mine but got pregnant by my boy. It would only be right. It takes two to get pregnant. Its tough enough the school should leave it to their family and stay out of some matters.