Teen pregnancy has become an epidemic in North America and around the world. Contributing factors such as the glamourization of young women getting pregnant in Hollywood - from 16-year-old actress Jamie Lynn Spears to films such as Juno - have made pregnancy seem like the hottest trend.
Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that R. D. Parker Collegiate has a teen mom program in place. And I'm not judging young women who make mistakes and end up pregnant. These girls should be applauded for doing their best to raise their children and have a good life. But let's no forget the operative word here - they're just girls.
There are many positive aspects of R. D. Parker's teen mom program, including supporting teen mothers when issues come up that would affect their schooling; connecting them with organizations like the RCMP, social services and legal aid; and offering on-site counseling and flexible programming to allow these students to be as successful as possible.
One part of the program, however, that seems like it might run the risk of doing more harm than good, is running pre-natal classes inside the high school. R. D. Parker has teamed up with the Baby's Best Start program to offer the classes once a week to teen mothers. While I applaud R. D. Parker's concern for teen mothers and the work they've done to help them succeed, this, to me, is taking it too far.
What does it say to an impressionable young freshman, just out of Grade 8, when she sees that pregnant girls, not much older than her, are able to take their pre-natal courses at a high school - a place for the education of students who are still, legally and emotionally, children?
It is my opinion that this will give other students the impression that getting pregnant is the norm for students their age, and that it's not such a big deal. After all, they can schedule their day around hanging out with their friends, studying, and taking pre-natal classes, all in the same building.
Let's encourage and try to support pregnant and young mothers in the high school system as much as we can to ensure they have successful, healthy lives for themselves and their children. But when it comes to offering pre-natal classes in a building that sees impressionable girls as young as 13-years-old walk through its halls each day, perhaps things like that are better left outside the school system.
