<p>I hope she wins. If she doesn’t on the grounds that another human can’t be in the photo, then I hope she holds a beautiful framed photo of her son. I don’t know her plans after graduation, but I hope something good comes from this publicity and she gets some help from colleges/employers.</p>
<p>Does anyone REALLY think teens are so stupid and so impressionable that seeing a single picture of a happy teen mom will make her go out and have unprotected sex? Wow.</p>
<p>Chances are that everyone in the school ALREADY knows this girl, that she made it to graduation, and that she and the baby’s father, for now, are beating the odds. Because they know her, they also know that these two young parents had to sacrifice a lot to make it happen. They know about the missed parties, the late papers, the lower grades. They know about the strained relationship between the two as they worked out the parenting. They know about the difficulties with their parents. Now, if any of the STILL think it’s a cool idea to go get pregnant, then the photo is the least of anyone’s worries.</p>
<p>Off topic slightly but I just wanted to say I’m so happy to see parents in this thread who aren’t completely blasting the girl. </p>
<p>My own dad would’ve said she shouldn’t be in the yearbook at all because she should have been kicked out of school for being pregnant…Or be sent to an alternative school…Like the kind where they send kids who get in fights or bring alcohol to school, not one for teen moms…</p>
<p>To avoid all the difficult decisions, their next step will be to do away with yearbooks.</p>
<p>Doesn’t the school have some recently vacated closets in which they can force the teen-aged mom’s who choose to have their babies.</p>
<p>The kids have probably seen her everyday with the baby. And seen that she is responsible and doing well. I can;t see how the yearbook picture, will be looked at 30 years from now, is going to change that. Do the younger classes even see the older kids’ yearbooks?</p>
<p>To me it’s not the baby just they whole idea of something in the picture that’s just stupid.</p>
<p>My daughtery used her senior picture for job applications school ID etc. paying for a picture of her with a puppy would be stupid</p>
<p>@sseamom
YES. That’s exactly what I think whenever someone says that seeing teen moms glamorize teenage pregnancy and will cause girls to get pregnant in high school. I think it’s absolutely absurd. At some point parents have to take responsibility for what goes on in their child’s life. If your kid thinks its okay to intentionally get pregnant in high school, they weren’t raised correctly. It won’t be MTV’s fault or the schools fault.</p>
<p>NOOO?? MTV doesn’t have a role in our kids lives?? Not Beyonce, Britney, Katie, or the likes??? Really??? I don’t know when you all where born, but think back to Madonna? Did not almost every girl strive to dress like her or wear bracelets just like her? I don’t know this girls situation, other than the fact that she took her yearbook picture with her infant child. If that’s what she felt was appropriate to do, who am I to judge. But I disagree that MTV or television in general doesn’t have an influence on society. It does.</p>
<p>No one is saying that MTV is without influence. What some of us are saying is that the one show Teen Moms is actually an example of how so many things can go WRONG with teen pregnancy, such as having to adopt out your child, drop out of school, get involved with drugs, lose custody of your child and so much more. There’s nothing fun or glamorous about it. So if there’s ANY influence here, I would have to say it would be to influence kids NOT to get pregnant. </p>
<p>Adopting a style of clothing for a few weeks is really different from intentionally getting pregnant because some trashy girl on TV is watching her life go down the tubes as a result, which as I understand it, is what has happened with every one of the Teen Moms. </p>
<p>And I repeat, that if anyone thinks seeing one picture of one teen mom on one page of a yearbook with her child is going to inspire a girl to go get pregnant, that girl has very serious problems. Do we worry that a single photo of anything else will cause such a life-altering decision? Not that I’ve ever heard!</p>
<p>I think that schools have an obligation to be against drugs and teen pregnancy. Schools should not be communicating in any way this is recommended, normal etc. Of course, these things happens. But I think that the CC parents, who likely emphasize to their own kids, that these things are not good, should not be encouraging schools to take a different position. Every day, CCs parents should remember that there are kids who have not had the advantages that their kids have had.</p>
<p>I’m the person who raised the issue of MTV a while back. I object to the cynical way MTV and our skeevier media outlets exploit the situation of teen parenthood and seek out dysfunctional personalities to illustrate it. I don’t hold MTV accountable for unwed and/or teen motherhood. Just as I don’t see how a yearbook photo of a baby everyone in school knows the girl has is in any way a promotion of teen motherhood.</p>
<p>Should we accept teen motherhood? Well, what’s the alternative? It’s always been with us, MTV or not, yearbook pictures or not. I agree that it’s unlikely that there’s a young woman out there who thinks, “Caitlin’s baby is in the yearbook - cool! I want that to be me next year!” </p>
<p>I do still think that, if the school rule has always been “no family members,” then that rule should apply. But not because the photo promotes, or doesn’t promote, teen motherhood. The school’s action seems punitive to me if the administrator identifies teen motherhood as the reason the photo was excluded.</p>
<p>I think this girl should be held up as proud example of someone who is overcoming what some might construe as adversity. The school should honor her for her commitment to her education, and the responsibility she has shown toward her child. Certainly, every anti-abortion person should be cheering her on (and I wonder why they don’t go to bat for her - shouldn’t she be their poster child?)</p>
<p>I don’t agree that this girl should be a “proud example.” I don’t think it’s a good idea to put forth kids who manage/recover from/ drugs, alcohol or teen pregnancy in a positive light. These experiences can be celebrated without being immortalized in a yearbook portrait. For every kid who has a supportive family structure that helps them through their adversities, and I do believe teen pregnancy is an adversity and one in this day and age like drugs and alcohol can be avoided, there are kids who don’t have those support structures.</p>
<p>Immortalized? It’s put in a yearbook that no one will look at for 30 years. But which point she’ll likely be a grandmother.</p>
<p>I don’t understand your thinking, momofthreeboys, unless you mean solely regarding yearbooks. As someone who mentors a young lady who’s had challenges most of us would find crushing, and who works with others in my job, I believe one of the best things a young person already facing teen pregnancy, the temptations of drugs, etc. can do is to see a person who’s succeeded in getting out from under.</p>
<p>This is really new thinking to me-that the mere act of SEEING a person who’s succeeded despite adversity of their own choosing will cause others to think that they can too. Usually choices like teen sex, drugs, alcohol use are the result of a combination of issues-not just looking at a photo.</p>
<p>You know, right, that there are many former addicts and alcoholics that go into counseling BECAUSE they’ve been successful in getting clean? Are you saying that these people should go into another line of work so that those in addiction will not see their success and think they should just stay addicted, or those who know them but aren’t using will choose to start doing drugs because they think they can just be like So and So and kick it later? That’s just odd.</p>
<p>kayf-you have no idea what “CC parents” are like, or what their kids face. No one here is suggesting it’s a good idea that teen get pregnant, or that they be celebrated. What some of us are saying is that when a teen finds herself pregnant and works her way out of a downward spiral, THAT is to be commended because she DIDN’T continue to make bad choices. That would make her a role model of what one can do instead of dropping out, going on welfare, etc. </p>
<p>My young mentee is not only raising her own young son but her siblings because one parent is dead and the other unfit. She’s also in college (with a solid B"B average) and working, and all of them are doing well. I’m not sure when she sleeps. You BET I hold this girl up as an example of what one can accomplish DESPITE odds that dictate she be a statistic. She should be on the COVER of some teen publication, not just in the pages somewhere. Who better to help derailed teens make GOOD choices? That she’s studying to be a counselor makes perfect sense to me.</p>
<p>Yes, yearbooks and senior portraits…that is what we are discussing, nothing more nothing less. </p>
<p>And yes, mini, perhaps immortalize is too strong of a word, but I couldn’t think of a less glorified synonym. Enduring perhaps would have been a better choice within a different sentence structure.</p>
<p>SSEA, I am glad your mentee has succeeded, but I do not think any pregnant girl should be a model. What government and community resources went to helping your mentee? No, yearbooks, etc should be just of students.</p>
<p>I don’t know what teenagers you guys know, but I have yet to meet one who thought being a teen mom would be fun and easy and cute baby, teehee!</p>
<p>If we’re talking about reality shows, the production teams of those shows purposely look for people who will produce the most drama. It is not “reality” at all.</p>
<p>This photo will not cause girls to run out and purposely get pregnant unless they are already so much “at-risk” that they are going to face significant hurdles no matter what. But it might cause some girls who ended up pregnant to choose to have a baby instead of an abortion, or to stay in school after they have a baby instead of dropping out, or to realize that they can still make it to college if they work hard.</p>
<p>@serentiyjade/post #43</p>
<p>I must say that I agree with your dad. In my day, before sliced bread :)~, girls who decided to keep their babies were sent to a school for pregnant girls. I believe it allowed for later arrival times, prenatal/newborn curriculum, different support systems etc. It also cut down on the distractions that pregnant bellies can bring to a school. </p>
<p>Now, things are different and girls are allowed to stay in their original school or go to the alternative school. Often times, the girls stay because they don’t want to miss out on the “fun” of high school or their friends. I must say that seeing pregnant freshman waddling around school flanked by their adoring “fans”/having their bellies rubbed is quite unsettling. Downright disturbing. Where I come from, it seems like having a baby before one is able to vote, drive or legally drink is a badge of honor. Society has made teen pregnancy too mainstream and an accepted practice. Such a tragedy.</p>