2nd Look: 90 Girls Pregnant at Memphis High School

Before I begin, I want to say that I think that it is my life's calling to mentor and help young African-American teenage girls to become successful and respectable women. In our society, there is already so many things stacked against us, so I want them to know that they can be what they want to be. I want their goals to be to go to college, begin successful careers and NOT have babies because that can jeopardize their futures.


It was first reported earlier this month that more than 90 girls at Frayser High School in Memphis were either pregnant or had recently had babies. This adds up to approx. 20% of the female population at the school. I don't know if this is caused by peer pressure or lack of sexual education, but I feel that it is a shame that it got this bad and to this level before there was some attention given to the issue. I am sure that this didn't not happen all at once, and there should have been programs in place to combat this problem in its early stages.

When I saw this story, my heart literally started to hurt for these girls. I started to think about how many of these girls have low self-esteem and probably don't even know their self-worth. Whether it was a boy telling them what they want to hear or some kind of "pregnancy pact", I immediately felt that they must know know how wonderful they are and don't make responsible decisions for themselves. These girls also need role models who are SHOWING them & not just telling them what are the right decisions to make. I hope to be one of those role models for them, both locally and nationally, in the future (that is my DREAM).

A particularly sad part of this story to me was seeing Terikka Sutton, a 16-year-old who is one of the teen moms at the school, talking about the issue while holding her 2-month-old daughter. I saw her struggling while holding the baby and could see that she was overwhelmed by the challenges of being a teen mom in her eyes and hear it in her voice. However, she gave some of the most powerful quotes:

It's a shame that all of these girls at Frayser (are) pregnant, but it ain't nothing new. Some girls try to get pregnant because they think it's cute and some (are) an accident. They probably plan what they are gonna do to get pregnant.  They need a class to teach the girls to use protection and not to try to get pregnant. 

This story should be a learning experience for ALL young teenage women. In our society, teen pregnancy and motherhood are almost glorified by shows like "16 & Pregnant" and "Teen Mom" and some girls are actually looking at having a baby as a way to get famous. This is a problem that needs to start at home because parents cannot continue to tip-toe around the issue and then be SURPRISED when their daughters come home pregnant (Hello Sarah Palin). There has to be a nationwide effort to help raise the self-esteem of these young girls so that they are not making such destructive decisions.


Here is the video from MSNBC of the interview with Terikka:

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Here is another video that I found from CNN Prime News: