Teen Mothers

Creating an infant day-care center for school-age mothers at Westminster High School makes a great deal of sense. The Carroll County Board of Education should be commended for giving preliminary approval to the project. The daunting task is to find the money to open the center and to cover its operating costs.For most teen-age mothers, the mistake of becoming pregnant is compounded by the mistake of dropping out of high school. Carroll County social and health workers estimate that about 73 percent of teen mothers drop out of school, compared to about 3 percent for Carroll's general high school population.

It is no longer teenagers stumbling into pregnancy and parenthood about whom we should be fretting. Those numbers continue to drop, because the kids are having less sex and using more contraception. No, it is the 20-something women who are putting babies before marriage at a frightening rate - and not because they don't know any better. They are sure the good man and the picket fence are out of reach, but they still want children. Why wait for what they don't think will happen? That's the picture painted by a new study, "Knot Yet: The benefits and costs of delayed marriage in America," prepared by researchers at the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and the Relate Institute.

After two years of planning and preparation, a day care center for the babies of teen-age mothers will open tomorrow in the county-owned Distillery building in Westminster.The opening of the center, called Raising Hopes, is the culmination of the efforts of a coalition of service providers to provide teen mothers with safe, convenient day care and other ** support services so that they won't drop out of school."We're trying to offer them an alternative, which is to have quality day care along with parental education classes, case management and counseling," said Christy Lynch, Raising Hopes' coordinator.

When your life is already in chaos, more chaos is likely to follow. But theAnnie E. Casey Foundationsays it won't let that happen to the children affected by its decision to close Casey Family Services this year ("Casey foundation ends foster care program," July 16). Given the foundation's outstanding record of serving the most vulnerable children over the last 36 years, I trust it will do everything possible to maintain stability for the kids in its program Casey's decision to remain committed to increasing adoption through increased awareness, education and technical assistance is laudable.

Looking smart in a crisp white and navy sheath, Nakia Stephens strode to the stage of her high school auditorium and invited her mother to join her. Nakia spoke with confidence as she introduced Delores Stephens to the audience. Then Nakia, 17, faced her mother and prepared to recite a thank-you speech.Instead, she burst into tears. "Mom, I really love you," Nakia finally managed through sobs, her face buried in the older woman's arms. Her mother, too, was crying.There were many moments like that, and many tissues, as Baltimore's Paquin School held it's annual Mother's Day celebration yesterday.

Amy Yrban got all A's last quarter.It was an honor the School of Technology student never received before -- and an achievement the 19-year-old mother and former dropout had worked hard to get.She was ecstatic when she received her grades."

It is no longer teenagers stumbling into pregnancy and parenthood about whom we should be fretting. Those numbers continue to drop, because the kids are having less sex and using more contraception. No, it is the 20-something women who are putting babies before marriage at a frightening rate - and not because they don't know any better. They are sure the good man and the picket fence are out of reach, but they still want children. Why wait for what they don't think will happen? That's the picture painted by a new study, "Knot Yet: The benefits and costs of delayed marriage in America," prepared by researchers at the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and the Relate Institute.

POLICY PLANNERS and government officials have been spending enormous amounts of energy devising new programs to prevent teen pregnancy as part of recent welfare reform proposals.The challenge to the planners is stark, about 357,000 children were born to unmarried teen-agers in 1990. To create effective pregnancy prevention programs, planners must take into account the range of sexual and emotional experiences that can lead an adolescent to early, unplanned parenthood.Absent from the teen-pregnancy debate has been any discussion of the critical role played by childhood sexual abuse.

The Carroll County Board of Education wants to hear from the public before it decides whether to open a day-care center for teen mothers who attend Westminster High School. The message it is likely to hear is that the program is unsuitable for the public schools and should not be funded.If the board heeds such advice, it will be making a big mistake.No one advocates teen-age motherhood. Yet, it happens.Last year, Carroll had 53 pregnant girls under the age of 17, according to George Giese, director of Carroll's Youth Services Bureau.

IN THE 1994 crime bill, Congress required an analysis of out-of-wedlock childbearing, identifying causes, consequences and preventive measures. And for good reason: Many of the people accused and convicted of violent crimes grew up without fathers.The report fingers some familiar culprits -- and punctures some comfortable assumptions. "Illegitimacy" is not just a ghetto problem, nor do those proverbial "teen" mothers comprise the majority of women who give birth out of wedlock. In fact, teen-agers account for only 30 percent of births outside marriage.

The family of Christopher Brown — the Randallstown teen who died this month after an altercation with an off-duty Baltimore County police officer — is demanding the officer be charged. "An arrest needs to be made," Brown's mother, Chris, told reporters Monday afternoon at a relative's home in Randallstown, where numerous photos of the Randallstown High School junior were displayed around the room. She and the teen's aunt wore a picture of him on their shirts, with the words "Gone But Not Forgotten" written beneath.

In her commentary on teen pregnancy ("Teen pregnancy is poverty's offspring," April 16), Susan Reimer perpetuates the justification that poverty is the primary reason teens engage in sex and become pregnant. This begs the question: Why, when we have always had poverty, did we not see the rate of unwed teen mothers in the past that we witness today? I grew up in a section of Baltimore City that had its share of immigrants, blue collar workers and other individuals who would be considered poor by today's standards.

Pointing to stubbornly high teen birth rates, Baltimore officials, youth advocacy organizations and sex-education groups gathered Friday to announce a new strategy aimed at coordinating disjointed prevention efforts and filling geographic gaps in services to city teens. About 66 of every 1,000 babies born in Baltimore in 2007 were to teen mothers, almost double the statewide rate, according to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The rates were even higher for the city's African-American and Hispanic mothers.

A lawyer for the mother of Christopher Jones, the Crofton teen who died in an apparent eruption of suburban gang violence, has notified the Anne Arundel County school system of the family's intention to sue for failing to protect the 14-year-old from gangs at school. "The mother is almost as mad at the school department as she is at the six kids," said Richard L. Jaklitsch, attorney for Jenny Adkins, the mother of Christopher Jones. "They made numerous promises to her. The school didn't live up to a single one."

At first, Nicole Lewis was surprised to hear that the 17-year-old daughter of the Republican vice presidential nominee is pregnant. But on second thought, Lewis figured the news wasn't so surprising. Teen pregnancy can happen to anyone. Lewis, 28, was a teen mother herself. Fresh out of a Virginia high school, she found herself abandoned by her friends, who didn't understand why she didn't just get an abortion, and isolated from the family she had let down. Now college-educated and working at Baltimore's Healthy Teen Network, a national teen pregnancy clearinghouse, Lewis hopes the experience of the daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will call attention to the need for services for teen mothers.

The classrooms are filled with desks, some with computers, too, but day after day many of those rooms go unused. Here's where pregnant girls and teen mothers used to learn about business education and science. Now, only half of the nursery's cribs are filled with infants. Laurence G. Paquin Middle/High School in East Baltimore has had its staff cut nearly in half in the past year because of system budget cuts. Teachers say staff cuts led to dwindling enrollment. And now that the facility on Sinclair Lane has excess space, city school officials want to give the building to another school and move Paquin to the nearby Lake Clifton High complex.

When your life is already in chaos, more chaos is likely to follow. But theAnnie E. Casey Foundationsays it won't let that happen to the children affected by its decision to close Casey Family Services this year ("Casey foundation ends foster care program," July 16). Given the foundation's outstanding record of serving the most vulnerable children over the last 36 years, I trust it will do everything possible to maintain stability for the kids in its program Casey's decision to remain committed to increasing adoption through increased awareness, education and technical assistance is laudable.

In her commentary on teen pregnancy ("Teen pregnancy is poverty's offspring," April 16), Susan Reimer perpetuates the justification that poverty is the primary reason teens engage in sex and become pregnant. This begs the question: Why, when we have always had poverty, did we not see the rate of unwed teen mothers in the past that we witness today? I grew up in a section of Baltimore City that had its share of immigrants, blue collar workers and other individuals who would be considered poor by today's standards.

Keturah Saunders can attend classes at Wilde Lake High School without worrying about her 2-year-old daughter. Maliyah is attending school with Saunders, one of 12 young mothers enrolled in the Howard County school system's teen parent and outreach program based at the Columbia school. "It makes it easier for me to stay in school," said Saunders, 18, a senior. "I feel a little bit safer having her here." For 20 years, the countywide program has helped several hundred mothers and fathers stay in school by providing child care for their babies while they are in classes nearby.

Keturah Saunders can attend classes at Wilde Lake High School without worrying about her 2-year-old daughter. In fact, Maliyah is attending school with Saunders, one of 12 young mothers enrolled in the Howard County school system's teen parent and outreach program based at the Columbia school. "It makes it easier for me to stay in school," said Saunders, 18, a senior. "I feel a little bit safer having her here." For 20 years, the countywide program has helped several hundred mothers and fathers stay in school by providing child care for their babies while they are in classes nearby.