“Hey Brittney, let’s both get knocked up — we can get four weeks off of school!”

“Cool idea, Jennifer! Brandy, want to get pregnant and get four weeks off of school?”

“Rad idea! But wait — will our moms let us?”

“Sure! It was their idea! I mean, like, they saw ‘Juno” and everything.”

“AWESOME!”

“Dude, that chick Brittney is all over me, Dude.”

“yea, she’s lookin to get 4 weeks off from school, dude.

“4 weeks! Dude, thats like longer than Christmas break. Bitches.”

“maybe you can hit it on a snow day, Dude”

“Awesome, I’m totally texting that.”

Life is hard enough on teen mothers and penalizing them (I know when I was in high school more than 10 absences in a year meant being held back a grade) for the time they may have to take (whether they want to or not) isn’t doing anything to help them reach a point they can financially support a child.

And seriously, even the slowest student can figure out that 4 weeks off in exchange for a child for the next 18 years is a bad deal.

There was a time that a pregnancy meant instant removal from public school and a move to some sort of vocational program…That, sounds like punishment.

I’d rather see a new mom, particularly a teen mom, get settled into some sort of routine and then resume high school at a later date. Missing four continuous weeks of high school with some expectation that the work can be kept/made up doesn’t sound like a formula for mom’s success.

If they’re pregnant, I’d say they’ve already been penalized.

Thank Youuuu

Wait a minute here… I thought teen pregnancy was funny. Somebody’s got to make up their mind.

I guess for me the question (as others have alluded to) is whether a person can give birth, assume the role of a mother, miss four weeks of school and just go on with life. Why and how do you advocates of this blanket policy expect these teen and unwed mothers to “press on” and keep up with the studies and stay on track to graduate like any other person not comparably “hampered.”

You also have to wonder what these children are doing with their babies when they go back to school in four weeks. Chances are if they are teenagers, they can’t afford daycare. Even if grandma can take care of the baby, these girls need to be learning to care for their child. Too often the children of teen parents end up suffering. This problem has to be adressed in bigger terms than should the girls get four weeks off to recover from childbirth.