subject: 90 Teen Pregnancies At One Memphis High School [print this page] The startling teen pregnancy report is in line with the high teen birth rate in Frayser. While the nation's teen pregnancy rate is 10 percent, the rate in this area of Memphis is 25 percent.
Teen pregnancy: not a new trend
Though the teen birth rate has witnessed a decline in the nation over the past years, the trend is opposite in Frayser.
Even at this high school, teen pregnancy is not a new problem.
In fact, Alicia Williamson, who graduated from Frayser High School in 2004, told Chicago Tribune, When we would come back from summer break, there would be a thousand people pregnant. We were like, what's going on?"
She added, Being 2011, I thought a lot of them would have thought this is not the right way to go, having babies during school time.
As one of the causes of the problem is the lack of knowledge and sex education, the campaign, titled 'No Baby!' will educate the teens on how to prevent or tackle unplanned pregnancies.
The school has 978 students. Out of this, 508 are girls.
No Baby! campaign
Considering the teen pregnancy rate at the Frayser High School, a campaign to tackle the epidemic has been launched in the city.
As one of the causes of the problem is the lack of knowledge and sex education, the campaign, titled 'No Baby!,' will educate teens on how to prevent or tackle unplanned pregnancies.
"Right now, these girls don't know how to say no, they're having sex when they don't want to, they just don't know how to say no," stated Deborah Hester Harrison of Girls Inc., a non profit organization that teaches girls how to prevent pregnancies.
The program aims to instill confidence in young girls to say no to sex.
Apart from the 'No Baby!' campaign, even the Memphis school officials are working on programs to deal with the problem.
Adverse effects of teen pregnancies
Teen pregnancies comes with many medical risks, and problems like hypertension, high blood pressure, low-birth-weight babies, premature birth, high chances of caesarean sections, and postpartum depression.
Marc Goodman-Bryan with the Urban Child Institute added, A lot of these girls aren't developmentally ready to be really effective parents, and that affects the child's development.
