As a senior at McCracken County High School (a school of about 2,000 students in Kentucky), I hear gossip about another girl being pregnant daily. It's becoming a common occurrence. There's already 3 seniors pregnant and at least one junior. With those numbers, I don't even want to think about the underclassmen at this point. Even in my junior year, there were 2-3 in each grade. These happenings have lead me, curiously, to try to find a possible explanation.
Recent statistics from Planned Parenthood (www.plannedparenthood.org), Kentucky is in the top ten states with the highest numbers of teen pregnancy. In 2013, there were approximately 5,300 teen pregnancies in the state of Kentucky. 17% were repeated pregnancies.
I am no genius, but I do know that is way too much for teenagers. It's bad enough that hearing a fourteen-year-old is pregnant doesn't surprise me anymore. Every area is different, but for my small town and high school, it's because we did not have enough sex education; we really didn't get any sex ed.
At McCracken, we have a standard health class that goes through STD's, but we never learned how to be safe. They would have a very "Mean Girl" moment and tell us not to have sex, but that's it. We had no further discussion or learning. In fact, the only time we ever saw a demonstration about how to cover up and be safe was in 7th grade. Why did we have to learn that so young when it was so irrelevant?
But, we shouldn't just be learning at school. We should be learning from our parents as well. I remember having "the talk" with my mother, and I know right from wrong. It's not because she gave me the talk, but rather she was honest about any questions I had. Most parents today don't do that. Half of them are so loose on the restraints on their children that they don't even know that their kids are fooling around! Too many teenage girls' futures are being poured down the drain because their parents don't teach them or care!
This may seem like a rant, but I am appalled at the consequences of the lack of sex education in today's generation. If you're a parent, I urge you to please give your teenagers a talk before teen pregnancy becomes the new trend. And, teenagers, stop and think about the damage you can cause to your body. Growing a baby inside of you is a lot of hard work (and also something most of our bodies haven't developed enough first). Go out and live your lives. You have your whole life to have a fun time and have children, don't waste it by a decision you made.
This isn't insulting teen mothers because I know some are great mothers, but they shouldn't have to be mothers at a young age. That's all I'm saying.
