How on earth is it that those who work with teenagers, the school district, are so blatently unaware of abussive homes and how dangerous this law will be. This is such shit and it's really upsetting. If anything, pregnant teens need safe people to confide in and access to safe medical care, not laws endangering their lives like this.

This is disgusting, and I thank my lucky stars that my school district doesn't implement such atrocious policies.

And I thank you SO much for linking to that post! My body, my choice, even when I'm a teenager.

How on earth is it that those who work with teenagers, the school district, are so blatently unaware of abussive homes and how dangerous this law will be. This is such shit and it's really upsetting. If anything, pregnant teens need safe people to confide in and access to safe medical care, not laws endangering their lives like this."

Yup.

I envy such self-indulgently morally simplistic people....they fuck things up and then let others lose sleep over it, totally free of responsibility even after they personally unleash hell.

As an 18 year old, I can safely say that there are rarely rights for anyone in the public school system. If the teachers agree that something is okay than it becomes okay, and because I came from a very conservative school I found this particularly troublesome. Actually, at our school not only would parents find out if you were pregnant, but if you were holding hands with someone of the same gender there were a few teachers that would call your parents to make sure they knew about it. Our vice principal also had the fantastic habit of saying the most sexist things he could just to see if he could get a reaction. The height of his idiocy was a half hour lecture on religion delivered to a friend of mine who made the mistake being non-Christian with facial piercings. She's not exactly super-rebellious either - she spent this time sobbing uncontrollably.

i go to school in this county and the policy disgusts me. i've been discussing it with my friends and their parents and all of us are outraged.

What assholes. I don't understand what the hell the logic on that one is. What good is it for a pregnant teen to be denied healthcare? Even if she intends to continue that pregnancy, wouldn't it be important for her to still have access to prenatal care?

Like JustAGrrrlGeek, I went to conservative high school in a very small town where anything that was said or done was fair game to be passed on, especially to one's parents and families. Once, I got into a discussion during class where I admitted I was an atheist. By the time school let out that very afternoon, my mom knew all about it. Ditto the rumors and innuendo about my sexuality and supposed 'leanings' towards satanism, communism and apparent ability to blow things up with my mind. (My classmates were very bored that semester.)

Laws like this are sick, but they are just a formality sometimes, especially in small, clique-ish towns and districts.

this is idiotic and in the end will only result in harm to the mother and/or the fetus.

does make me wonder though, what rights does a teenager have? doesnt it vary a lot by state? in the full post she asks why not find out who the father is and call his parents. well using the logic these people seem to be using, shouldnt the school be required to find out who the father is as a 15 or 16 year old being pregnant could be evidence of a crime. where does it end, where does it start?

what other things do you need to tell your parents about/get their permission? only things i remember from growing up was piercing my ears and tattoos but those laws may have changed and werent hard to get around in the first place. damn this whole thing is idiotic.

I completely disagree with the policy as well, for the same reasons already mentioned. However, as a teacher, I have asked myself several times whether I should or should not tell a parent about something I learned about a student.

For example, recently a student told me that he's a drug dealer. I informed the social worker so that she would talk to him about his choices and their possible consequences, but I didn't call his mom and left that to the social worker. It's likely his mom knows since he's in trouble with the law so much, but then again, you'd be amazed what parents don't know about their students. We have students who rarely come to school; we have a calling center that calls parents of students missing school every day, and yet when parents are visited by the constable or a social worker, the parents are often shocked that their kids haven't been going to school. Some students will be dressed head to toe in gang affiliated clothes, with tattoos that say "blood" or "crip", and the parents have no idea their child is in a gang.

This may be due to bad parenting, to the parents' having several jobs, to a disconnect between generations, or any number of other reasons. As a teacher, what is my responsibility?

I don't consider myself a spy for parents. I've overhead all kinds of things, and I see all sorts of things, but I don't call every time I hear students whispering about going to Planned Parenthood or holding hands or professing unpopular beliefs.

I tend to stick with what I'm legally required to inform or if I feel a student is a danger to him or herself. Yet even then it's gray. For example, I am legally required to inform a counselor, social worker, or child protective services if a student discloses that s/he intends to committ suicide, is a victim of abuse, or is using drugs or alcohol. Now, the first two are taken more seriously and I agree with them. Yet if I were to call home every time a kid mentioned drugs or alcohol--as a joke or seriously--I'd be calling home constantly. On the other hand, I had a student who was cutting herself pretty badly, and I informed the counselor.

Anyway, I think it's an interesting conversation. For people who don't work in public school systems and/or have terrible memories of high school, I will say most teachers (and typically administrators) really care about the students at the school, whether they tend to be liberal or conservative. I'm not defending the policy at all, only saying that we struggle to negotiate our place in students' lives.

If the school is going to contact the parents for a pregnancy, are they also going to call home if a student thinks she/he has an STD? It's just further proof of how much people focus on pregnancy, and possible abortions, as the worst consequence of teen behavior.
I'm studying to become a teacher and one of the things they told us early on was to try not to call home about students' behavior because you never know what's really going on at home. This policy is pure stupidity.

Ditto the rumors and innuendo about my...apparent ability to blow things up with my mind.

OK, that is simply the best rumor ever. How the hell did that one get started?

I just watched an the episode by PBS/Frontline on Abortion/Reproductive Rights and I recommend everyone here interested in reproductive rights watch it. You can see it for free online at their website. It's a little old but basically it goes into how states have been gradually chipping away at women's rights with these insane laws. Laws like consent laws are a BIG weapon for these people the documentary basically sums up that these groups have been VERY successful in getting these laws through state legislatures. The show also goes into how sneaky these groups are because they always frame these laws as being "pro-women's health" or "we're for what's in the best interest of the mother/baby", blah blah blah. It's all a bunch of BS because these groups (and they admit it too) are specifically going after a women's right to choose what she wants to do with her own body and limit access to family planning services that include birth control and abortion. It's downright freakin' scary. After watching the program I was shocked at how many states now have consent laws and have restricted access to the point, where in one state there's only one clinic left that offers abortions and any clinic that takes state money aren't allowed to dispense information about birth control (abstinence only and forced birth only). Geez, Is'nt there any good news as far as fighting these anti-women groups and their laws? I haven't heard any lately, it's depressing.

I'm sorry but I do not disagree with this policy. I think parents should be notified if a school becomes aware that a teenager is pregnant.

Schools act as surrogate parents (by law by the way) while kids are in schools. If a child is doing drugs, getting into trouble, making bad grades, or if she is pregnant then the parent should know about it. For schools to be forbidden to release that information is absurd. These are not adults; they are minors. And NO they DON'T have privacy rights if they are minors. That's the whole point.

If that teen is in an abusive household and has fears related to the pregnancy then they probably aren't going to just go to a school clinic anyway. There are non-profits and social service agencies (not to mention school counselors) that student can and should confide in. It's not like they're going to be denied medical care. If the student is too terrified to seek help or confide in an adult then they probably aren't going to go to a school clinic and admit their condition anyway.

I think parents should be notified if a school becomes aware that a teenager is pregnant.

Why? Who is this going to help and how?

What about the comment that the school health clinic should not be considered the equivalent of a doctor's office? Personally, I don't think that if the school nurse is aware of a pregnancy, that she or he has the duty to inform the parents - she or he should be held to the same professional and legal standard towards that child's privacy that she or he would be if working in a hospital, or any other clinical setting. In that case, the nurse might have a legal obligation to notify child protective services, but that would really only apply if child abuse were suspected (and so it might depend on the age of the child at time of pregnancy, and so forth). At that point, yeah, The System would probably want to get involved. But don't we have better structures in place to deal with these issues than some school administrator phoning the parent? Personally, if I were still living in Howard County, I would love to press a suit against the school system just based on this argument about the student's right to medical privacy not applying because it's school. Hmmm...maybe it's time to phone the ACLU.

I have a real issue with how pregnant young women are treated. I don't like how the have to go to a special school. How they are ostracized, made to feel as if they have some horrible disease. We demonize pregnant young women and why, because of some archaic bs.

"We have to tell your parents that you're bad..." such crap, they aren't doing it to help the young woman, but as a punishment.

If they truly cared about these young women they wouldn't demonize them, which they do.

Young women who become pregnant as minors often already have very low self esteem and we just make them feel worse and then we get surprised when they have another baby.

These special schools don't help they make the women feel as if they've done something wrong.

Pregnancy isn't immoral, even if you're 16.

Maybe if it weren't demonized people can actually have a choice. They wouldn't feel like they have to hide an "accident" they could just have the choice to terminate the pregnancy on their own.

I think now many young women have babies simply because they are too ashamed to say anything.

A very unfair double standard with the teen pregnancy issue.

I wonder do they inform the boy's of the person she had sex with family or the authorities, because I'm going to be most pregnant teenagers "boyfriends" are over 18.

The whole way America treats pregnancy and teen pregnancy is scary, wrong, and archaic.

Browne

Meg77, school counselors are in the school, so they would be forced to tell in this situation. While ethical decision making in a school counseling is a little fuzzy sometimes, minors still have benefit of confidentiality (except in cases of suspected abuse, harm to self, or harm to others). Parents do have the right to ask what their kid talks about in a session (I think parents need to sign a general consent form to see the counselor), but counselors don't have to tell the parents anything. In the case of pregnancy, a school counselor would encourage the minor to tell her parents and offer to be there when she tells them.

This legislation not only screws teens who are pregnant, but it also threatens future therapeutic relationships with other students. How many students will go to the school counselor to get help if they believe the counselor would rat on them?

I LIVE IN HOWARD COUNTY MARYLAND (but thank god I'm 20)
and I can say this is NOT going to be good. Overall the people who live in howard county are very conservative, and most parents would flip the fuck out if their daughter was pregnant. For a personal story about how sex is viewed for "young people" ESPECIALLY girls: I am as stated before 20 years old, living at home while going to University of MD Baltimore Country full time, getting academic honors, graduating early, and interning. YET my parents do not feel I have the right to have my boyfriend of 2 years spend the night in my room.

So yeah howard county parents feel that their daughters should just not be having sex, no matter how responsible their daughter. I have a friend whose parents' told her that if she lost her virginity before she was married, she would be kicked out of the house. They are extreme even for this area, but yeah I think the point is made.

"There are non-profits and social service agencies (not to mention school counselors) that student can and should confide in."

...if the student has a car.

Not every community is densely populated enough to have non-profits and social service agencies within the range of mass transit, safe walking, and/or safe bicycling. Meanwhile, suburban school buses often don't take students anywhere but residential areas and school. Someone impregnated by a neighbor may be unable to go anywhere besides school without asking her parents for a ride there...

"I think parents should be notified if a school becomes aware that a teenager is pregnant.

"Why? Who is this going to help and how?"

Some people out there seem to think it'll "help" by making more girls afraid of having premarital sex in the first place.

These are not adults; they are minors. And NO they DON'T have privacy rights if they are minors. That's the whole point.

Oh, you don't have to remind those of us that came from verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive households of that fact. We were constantly informed of the fact. Repeatedly. Often. We knew we weren't full people with full rights until 18. And even after we turned 18 and went to college, we found out that we aren't full adults under the financial aid system unless we were married, had served in the military, had turned 24, or had completed our undergraduate education. To our horror, we found that the only way we could break away from having to use our parents' financial information for aid is to "prove" abuse via testimony from a "community authority" (aka a religious leader, thus screwing over the secular among us) or police report. People like me have gone into severe debt and have given up much in order to get away from abusive households where we couldn't "prove" abuse. So yeah, thanks for the memo: minors are property of the people who fucked to make them, whether those people were responsible, loving, and actually desiring of a child ... or not.

If that teen is in an abusive household and has fears related to the pregnancy then they probably aren't going to just go to a school clinic anyway. If the student is too terrified to seek help or confide in an adult then they probably aren't going to go to a school clinic and admit their condition anyway.

They may not have anywhere else to turn. Even here in California, where Planned Parenthood has a good presence, it is altogether too difficult for teens without cars to get to the clinics (the bus system sucks). Also, the school authorities might discover the pregnancy without the girl actually confiding by witnessing the signs of it.

"They may not have anywhere else to turn. Even here in California, where Planned Parenthood has a good presence, it is altogether too difficult for teens without cars to get to the clinics (the bus system sucks)."

Even if transportation is available, the girl has to have time to go to a clinic. That means either skipping school or getting out of the house, which is harder than it sounds when parents are very strict and controlling.

I was so angry about this it prodded me to start a blog as I'd been wanting for a while. I'm 30, but I've always been concerned about the control adults like to exert over teens' lives with no concern for the repercussions.

And yes, minors DO have some privacy rights. They are young adults, not property. They have the same right to confidentiality with mental health professionals, for example.

The girls who absolutely refuse to tell their parents will do so for reasons that need to be heard and respected.

I also pointed out in my post that the school employee is required to tell not just the parents, but the principal. I suppose this is so as many people as possible can line up to make sure she doesn't have an abortion.

I live in Maryland, and Howard county is next to the county I live in. I worked in Howard County for a while, and it's very rural and pastoral. Many of the towns and communities are planned, everything is carefully designed to look just right. It's a booming community, but the majority of people that live there are very conservative types. I can see how a teenage girl would not want to tell her parents first, or at all, and may instead want to go to a clinic (I found one in Sykesville) and there are a couple in Baltimore, but that means the girl needs a car, and needs to drive at least 45 minutes or more, maybe going into the inner city, and going into Baltimore is not something I would do alone, for my own personal safety.

And yes, it unfarily targets young women. Do they make any effort to find out who the father of the baby is, and if so, do they inform the boy's parents? Somehow these crazy conservative wackos are never concerned about that part. They only care about punishing the girls and controlling their sexuality.

I find this to be quite unfortunate. It smacks of the unethical involvement of the Ohio School involved in the Stephanie Bennett case. (More here or simply google. http://bastardette.blogspot.com/2007/04/ohio-stephanie-bennett-vs-adoption.html ) Schools need to back out of this issue. It's ridiculous.

Quote: These are not adults; they are minors. And NO they DON'T have privacy rights if they are minors. That's the whole point.

This is one of many situations that makes me think: do people have any idea why "rights" is a good concept? Perhaps they think that human rights are a terrible mistake that should be rectified at any occasion that happens to be available.

The idea that rights are connected to responsibilities is definitely absent. In this country 11 year old can be tried as "adults", but 17.5 year old are "morally incompetent".

Concerning the concept of confidentiality: I think it was invented not as a "right" but as an effective and practical answer to a problem. Church made confession confidential not because of privacy right but because the goal was to make spiritual counselling effective.

"Why? Who is this going to help and how?"

Some people out there seem to think it'll "help" by making more girls afraid of having premarital sex in the first place.

Exactly. Especially appropriate when dad's the one who knocked you up. Naughty girls! Maybe next time they'll know better than to be female in front of a man.

For a personal story about how sex is viewed for "young people" ESPECIALLY girls: I am as stated before 20 years old, living at home while going to University of MD Baltimore Country full time, getting academic honors, graduating early, and interning. YET my parents do not feel I have the right to have my boyfriend of 2 years spend the night in my room.

Not to veer to far off topic, but this made me giggle - I'm 26, have a master's degree, pay all my own bills, and live with my 28 y/o boyfriend. My parents will not sleep in our spare bedroom, and when we visit them, we can't share a room - I sleep on the couch. I come from a pretty middle of the road family, both politically and religiously, and this is the norm for us; my sister all went through this. We don't have any brothers so I don't know if things would be different. I don't mind; I don't want to make them uncomfortable, and honestly, sleeping on the couch for a holiday isn't going to kill me.

On topic, at first, my gut reaction was to say, well, but they're still legally non adults (at 17, not really children). Wouldn't I, if I were a parent, want to know? At 17, if I had gotten an STD or pregnant, i would have gone straight to my mom and dad. And then I realized - that's because my parents are AWESOME (aside from the whole, I can't sleep with my boyfriend thing). Perhaps the individuals should be less focused on forcing their children into full disclosure and encourage them to be open with what is going on in their lives. Of course, that would take time, trust, listening, and understanding - so perhaps its too much to ask.

Sorry, have to agree with the policy.

Children are not enititled to reproduction rights. In fact, its kind of nauseating even suggesting they should. Minors are already impressionable enough. Knowing they can hide this from their parents may encourage behaviors that should wait until adulthood. High school is not the time nor place to be arguing sexual reporductive rights.

This definitely weighs in pretty heavy on the creepy scale.

For a personal story about how sex is viewed for "young people" ESPECIALLY girls: I am as stated before 20 years old, living at home while going to University of MD Baltimore Country full time, getting academic honors, graduating early, and interning. YET my parents do not feel I have the right to have my boyfriend of 2 years spend the night in my room.

Not to veer to far off topic, but this made me giggle - I'm 26, have a master's degree, pay all my own bills, and live with my 28 y/o boyfriend. My parents will not sleep in our spare bedroom, and when we visit them, we can't share a room - I sleep on the couch. I come from a pretty middle of the road family, both politically and religiously, and this is the norm for us; my sister all went through this. We don't have any brothers so I don't know if things would be different. I don't mind; I don't want to make them uncomfortable, and honestly, sleeping on the couch for a holiday isn't going to kill me.

On topic, at first, my gut reaction was to say, well, but they're still legally non adults (at 17, not really children). Wouldn't I, if I were a parent, want to know? At 17, if I had gotten an STD or pregnant, i would have gone straight to my mom and dad. And then I realized - that's because my parents are AWESOME (aside from the whole, I can't sleep with my boyfriend thing). Perhaps the individuals should be less focused on forcing their children into full disclosure and encourage them to be open with what is going on in their lives. Of course, that would take time, trust, listening, and understanding - so perhaps its too much to ask.

Scilian, do you honestly think a teen chooses to have sex based on whether or not the school system will tell her parents if she gets pregnant? And what about the girls who are sexually assaulted by men living at home?

Guhhh. I've never understood a lot of the stuff surrounding pregnant students in the states. My highschool (in the most conservative province of Canada) had several pregnant students every year. All continued to go to school right up until the end, and all returned to school afterwards. Some even brought their babies sometimes with them and no one cared. Do they really make girls go to a different school in the states? We have special "mother" schools, but their for girls who want classes on parenting and free child care aside from regular classes and it's 100% optional to go.

I think the biggest reason I am against this is because it targets women/girls for pregnancy. So if 10 girls come up pregnant, you tell their parents. What if it was ONE boy who got them all pregnant. There doesn't seem to be any notion of informing his parents (how would you even know he did it, realistically?). It places the blame and shame on the girls.

I can understand that in a lot of cases parents will be supportive and the school probably thinks it's to ensure proper prenatal care for the mother and fetus. But life isn't perfect. I think the healthiest approach would be to encourage young women (and MEN!) to inform their parents and help them in getting the proper care regardless of who they choose to inform or not inform.

Scilian, I suggest you read the article and the concerns of many professionals about how this will hurt girls more than it will help anyone.

Teenagers do have rights. They are individuals with their own bodies. They're not property.

Scilian, the thing is, if a teenage girl WANTS to tell her parents she is pregnant, if she feels she can trust her parents enough to allow them in to her life, then she will. But if she thinks her parents will disown her, or fly off the handle, or abuse her, or have ALREADY abused her, or if it's her father who is responsible for the pregnancy in the first place--then they should be allowed to make the decision NOT to tell. Even if a girl was planning on telling her parents, eventually, in the best way possible, when she got the courage to do so, school officials randomly calling to tell parents their daughter is pregnant is probably the LEAST kind thing they could do to a girl in this situation. If a girl is confiding to a teacher or school health official that she is pregnant (and had this situation arisen for me in high school I could definitely see myself going to my favorite teacher before I went to my parents) then the best thing that person could do would be to ask the girl: "Do you want to tell your parents?" respect her answer, and if she needs it, help her to tell them herself.
Honestly, I'm almost twenty and living on my own at college, but if I were to get pregnant I probably wouldn't tell my parents if I were planning on getting an abortion. I'd have to tell them if I wanted to KEEP the baby, as it would be hard to hide nine months of ever-growing belly followed by a tiny little human, but my parents are anti-choice and wouldn't approve of an abortion anyway. Teenagers should have the same choices I do: to tell, not to tell, to have the child, or to abort.

Scilian, i wouldnt exactly call 16, 17 year old young women "children." i hate to break it to you, but a lot of 16 year olds have sex. and just because they are under 18 doesnt mean they are totally devoid of rights.

by the time i was 16, i knew only one girl who was a virgin. (notice i didnt say i had only one friend who was a virgin - i mentioned every single peer i was in contact with.)

this reminds me so much of funie republican views. teens have sex. get over it! since theyre going to do it anyways, dont we owe it to them to arm them with information and resources?

Knowing they can hide this from their parents may encourage behaviors that should wait until adulthood. High school is not the time nor place to be arguing sexual reporductive rights.

Why? Why should consensual sex between loving peers have to wait until legal adulthood? What is so inherently bad about teenagers having sex?

(Hmm. I seem to be asking this question on more than one thread lately...)

I go to school in Howard County, and as is seemingly obvious to many of you, this new policy is disgusting. I see it leading to only possible abuse, or the girls being forced by their parents to keep the baby, and thus doing what they can to "get rid of it." If the child hadn't planned on sooner or later telling their parents when they felt the time and place is right, then obviously there are some parent-child relationship problems here. And of course, there is nothing in the policy about finding out who the father is and telling HIS parents. I was wondering if anyone had any advice as to what to do to protest. My mom has already written to Board of Ed members and our Representatives and Congresspeople, and a friend and I planned on making flyers to inform the other students of the decision. Any ideas would be nice, since I really have no clue where to go from there.

Thanks,
Brady

You have to understand that in some states becoming pregnant automatically qualifies you to become an emancipated minor, which would mean that you have the rights of an adult in terms of your legal and medical decisions, and could live on your own.

In Maryland, this is only the case if you can prove the pregnancy AND MARRY THE FATHER. WTF? So you see a transfer of the girl as property, going from being the responsibility of her parents to being the responsibility of her husband! Ahhh, this makes me crazy.