Delhi Charter School, in Delhi, Louisiana has a problem with the Constitution, so like good christian fundies, they just ignore it.
Really? Just because some poor girl (and in that part of the country, poor isn't a character reference, but an economic descriptor) gets knocked up, these people are going to kick her out of school, so she can avoid contaminating the other kids with her female cooties or something. For some reason, the sin of fornication doesn't apply to the guys that knocked the young ladies up, though.
Look, you're a charter school, you're getting paid using tax money, and you are required to follow the rules of the public school system! You can't kick girls out for getting pregnant, as the article says, this is a violation of Title IX of the code of Federal Regulations!
When youngsters get pregnant, they need education, and support, and advice. They don't need excoriation and intolerant bad-mouthing from the authorities who are supposed to be protecting and educating them!
Here's the school policy:
If an administrator or teacher suspects a student is pregnant, a parent conference will be held. The school reserves the right to require any female student to take a pregnancy test to confirm whether or not the suspected student is in fact pregnant. The school further reserves the right to refer the suspected student to a physician of its choice. If the test indicates that the student is pregnant, the student will not be permitted to attend classes on the campus of Delhi Charter School.Emphasis mine.
I wonder who pays for the test?
7 comments:
Back in the late 70s, I was in practice in a small town. The school superintendent came to me asking that I find a young girl, physically unfit to remain in class so that she would be home schooled until after delivery. His specific words were, "She is pregnant out to here." along with an appropriate gesture. I advised him that nothing in my medical education and practice indicated that pregnant girls were unfit to attend school so, much to his anger, refused. She delivered uneventfully, raised the child with help from her mother, and, to my knowledge remained a functional member of the community and the school.
I should mention that, at least in that case, religion had nothing to do with either his or my viewpoints. Sometimes, even non religious persons can be intolerant.
I doubt very much that that school superintendent was non-religious.
Certainly not in that part of the country!
I think that anyone that has dealt with teenage pregnant mothers understands the need for special treatment. Not because they are "unfit" but because they are no longer "teenagers" and also not yet "adult mothers". This can be and is a distraction to others in a high school(or worse middle school)setting. They should be viewed as someone that needs extra help growing up at a more rapid rate than first anticipated and not as a pariah for the news media to make examples out of them. Schools(public/private/vouchers or whatever)cannot handle the special situation along with all the other issues they already have.
Kicking this girl out is not appropriate, but keeping her in is also not appropriate. Being that LA is under a voucher program, they should look into other forms of specialty help for such (hopefully)rare situations(home tutors, special schools). Teenage mothers must be treated with respect but also with the reality that they are no longer "normal". They should be supported and taught what their new role as a mother will be(ie parenting/relationship struggles/work/school). Regular high schools can't do that.
As for your accusations that they are being cold hearted because of religion, PULEEZ! The last I checked it is because of the religious that these young girls are even being given a chance to have their babies and get said resources! How do I know? I, personally, have been there for young teen mothers, along with many of my "evil cohorts". We are there to help with physical, mental, emotional support. Not just when they are pregnant but long after. We make sure they have the ability to fend for themselves in this cruel world and stay friends with them for long after that. It is because of a Calling to "do unto others" that we take up this cause. We are not in this to get a pat on the back, a gold sticker or any other reward(better place in heaven). We use our own funds most of the time and spend our free time doing the work. I am not the most involved "religious nut" but I am out there. When was the last time you helped? Oh, sorry, your to busy sitting on the side line complaining about the help I've been!
" The last I checked it is because of the religious that these young girls are even being given a chance to have their babies and get said resources! "
I think that depends on where you are.
As for your assertion of "separate but equal" rant, that's false too. The last thing these girls need is to be segregated and separated from their friends and the educational system they're used to. This system is meant to "protect" the kids in the school from these wayward girls, the language of the policy makes that clear, NOT as some kind of patriarchal "protection" for the girls, which your comment is so full of.
Go try to sell that BS somewhere else.
You have mentioned your wife? Correct? May I assume you have at least one child? Maybe two? So, you are saying as a grown woman she didn't change at all while pregnant? Hormonal shifts, suddenly weeping and then laughing a moment later?
Teenagers in school are a rough crowd. Especially the girls! Now put a pregnant girl in their midst and you think that all will be fine? This is not about "patriarchal protection" it is about common sense, I know that this is rare these days! But having worked with these girls, I know first hand. Maybe you should see for yourself?
Libs need to realize that we are not equal! Men can't have kids and women have to change when they do have kids. FACT!
Teens can't navigate this in school environments. Schools can't even effectively handle bullying in schools! You can call it BS, but I call your statement the REAL war on women. Until all women realize that being equal with a man means lowering ourselves to your level we will not have won anything. All we do is make you lazy and selfish and shoot ourselves in the foot. YUCK! No thank you!
First of all, this story wasn't about some nurturing christian fellowship which took these girls in and tenderly cared for them throughout their pregnancies.
It was about a school which was taking Federal money and tossing them out after forcing them to take a medical procedure, both of which were against Federal law.
I saw nothing in that story which gave any indication that the school gave a damn about what happened to them after that. And this in an area which is among the most religious in the country. They don't call it the bible belt for nothing.
Come up with a story about that same town that shows that they were cared for in the manner in which you seem so taken with, and then you can come back here and crow about it.
I am married and had three daughters. I am not ignorant of what women go through during a typical pregnancy. I lived with that same woman during all three, and did my share of assisting her in every way possible, including holding her head while she tossed her cookies every morning. Don't make assumptions.
Second of all, this policy is illegal. Other schools all across this country manage to deal with teens who are pregnant with varying degrees of success. I think you are selling the typical teen short, as a lot of them go through normal school curricula just fine.
The point is that separate is NOT equal. Removing them from their normal routines is a clear signal in anybody's book that they are being segregated, and the school's policy in this story made it clear that it was intended to "protect" the other students, and not to help the ones which got pregnant. Wrong message!
If you are helping, good for you. I hope you are doing it to really help, and not just to stroke your good name in heaven.
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