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If you’re a pregnant teen in a big city, there’s a chance you’ve encountered a relic from another time, an institution informally known as a P-school. I wasn’t aware that such schools still existed, but I read about them today in The New York Times.
The news item is that New York City, which has four of these high schools dedicated solely to pregnant girls, is now closing them down. The P-schools were intended to help young pregnant women, but the substandard education they offered and the isolated facilities often harmed more than helped. As the reporter writes:
Pregnancy schools across the country appear to be slowly fading away, partly stemming from the decade-long declining rate of teenage pregnancy and partly because of the idea that the girls should not be segregated from other students. These days, nearly 40 New York City high schools have their own day care centers.
According to statistics, about 7,000 public school students become pregnant each year in New York City, but the P-schools served only a tiny fraction of those (323, to be exact).
At first I was worried that this represented the loss of an option for pregnant teens, but as I read on I realized that there are better ways of addressing the situation, and in the end I think that New York’s move to close the P-schools is a positive one. I’m all for serving the special needs of young mothers, but I don’t think segregated schools are the way to achieve it. This seems to be the thinking of the Education Department, too:
The decision to close the schools came after a six-month study commissioned by the Education Department essentially concluded that the girls, eager to earn high school diplomas despite their pregnancies, had been relegated to a second-class tier of schools that treat them more like mothers-to-be than curious students.
When you isolate, you stigmatize. In today’s society, we don’t need to send pregnant girls off to special homes or schools, sequestering them from the rest of society. I know it still happens, but it will be a great day when we find other, better avenues to help young mothers, such as in-school day care or nonprofit housing not associated with obtaining surrenders.
Hi, My name is Keanu. I am 12 years old and I need to share something with everyone. My mother, Yomara Velez, is the founder of Sistas On the Rise, which is a non-for-profit organization in the South Bronx which helps young women that are teen moms. I read that you think it is a good idea to close the schools. IT’S NOT. My mom was a teen mom in high school through college. I have seen tons of teen moms and the struggles they face. They need these schools. The reason there are only 323 students is because last year, around June, they forced all of the students that have already given birth to go back to their old school. This dropped the numbers tremendously. Also, they didn’t provide the classes that were need, the schools were mis-managed. Whoeever heard of a school without math or english teachers? These schools, instead of closing down should be made better. Instead of spending all of the taxes everyone pays on buying weapons for a meaningless war, we should improve the education that these women are receiving. This issue about closing the schools is bigger than just the people that attend, its about giving the teen moms an opportunity to receive an education. As the child of a teen mom , i am glad that my mom graduated from high school and college because it affected my future and it turned me into an intelligent young man. I think this applies to the teen moms attending the p-schools as well. Lets learn from the past and protect the future.To learn to support email my mother at yomara@sistasontherise.org.
If you have anything you’d like to tell me or ask me, email me at nba_crossover123@yahoo.com.
THANKS
-Keanu