FRANKLIN
Sharmise Fleetwood was surprised when she got pregnant last year. Now 17, she plans to juggle school, basketball practice and motherhood in the fall.
In Franklin, there are many others like her. The city of 8,400 has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the state.
Community leaders and young parents cite several reasons, including a shortage of things to do, minimal sex education and little stigma surrounding teen pregnancy.
"It's all tied together," said Beth Reavis, the city's director of social services. About a third of school-aged children in Franklin live in poverty, more than twice the state average, according the U.S. Census Bureau.
Twenty-six of the city's teenagers gave birth in 2006, according to the state Department of Health. Nine were between 15 and 17 years old. Reavis said she thinks the numbers will look similar for 2007 and 2008. The topic has become a key one for this racially diverse city surrounded by Southampton and Isle of Wight counties.
"We've been working on social issues here in Franklin," said Vice Mayor Raystine D. Johnson. This month, Reavis will present the City Council with data and a proposed action plan on reducing teen pregnancies. The school system's guidance counselors also will tackle the issue in a meeting this month.
A major issue, young people say, is a lack of activities for teens.
"There's nothing to do here," said Sharmise, whose son, Khamar'j, is 4 months old. The movie theater closed, said his father, Duwane Faulk, 18. "There's the bowling alley," he added, "but people get bored of that."
Churches, organizations and the city are trying to step in.
The Rev. Charles Worth draws 15 to 30 teens a week from Franklin, Isle of Wight and Southampton to play pool and video games at his Isle of Wight church, True Word Christian.
"There's got to be constructive things for them to do," he said.
The Franklin parks and recreation department has a community center and a regular rap session for teens. And Franklin High School has started a mentoring group.
A lack of sex education also seems to play a part, young people said. Sharmise remembers a presentation on contraception during her sophomore year from a Planned Parenthood educator. Those sessions were discontinued.
She said it would have been helpful to hear more about what life is like with a baby - "what you go through, actually having them."
Twin sisters Stacy and Tracy Eley, 19, who were seniors at Franklin High this year, said they remember learning about sexually transmitted diseases, not pregnancy.
"They should talk about it in middle school," said Tracy, whose daughter T-Kayla is 1 month old.
Tait Sye, a spokesman for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the most effective sex education includes both contraception and abstinence.
"Comprehensive sex education and access to contraception help reduce teen pregnancy," he said.
But with so many young people starting families in Franklin, it's not seen as particularly unusual.
Tracy and Stacy, whose daughter Simiyah is 6 months old, said they planned their pregnancies because they felt ready. Both became certified nursing assistants in high school.
They said they are concerned about younger parents who might not have the maturity to care for their babies.
"I just hate to look at them so young like that," said Stacy, who missed several months of her senior year after her daughter was born.
Reavis said that despite the stereotype, only one teen parent in Franklin receives a welfare check. Since 1996, they have had to live with an adult to get benefits. "That's not what's driving this," she said. "This is societal."
Reavis said she'll take her cues from the City Council.
"As a community, we're aware," she said. "We're going to do what we have to do."
Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com.
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No, Jermaine . . .
That is where knowing what your goals are and exercising restraint (waiting for the good thing that you will get in five years instead of grabbing the good thing you can have right now) comes in.
I have *known* kids from single parent families in the days before schools and communities thought they had to be surrogate parents for them and . . . my friends have gone to church, learned about their value in the everloving eyes of God, exercised restraint, finished school, finished college, gotten married, *then* had kids. And they are still married and are still good parents now. I am not talking about one single race, either, because I don't think lack of restraint is a racial issue.
If you want to make something of yourself, it is up to *you* not your community. Cheers, MGM
To Donvabeach
I knew Hampton Roads had a lot of bridges but I didn't know there were so many trolls until I read the comments in the Pilot. Your comments were very insensitive and inappropriate. For the guy who said Franklin is not an Obama town, wake up, it is almost 50% black, as well as the public schools there. As a product of a teen mother and former resident of Franklin, my mother and health classes, taught me about the consequences of not using protection. I do agree it starts in the home but not everyone has the ideal home situation or come from a two-parent household, that is where the community and school comes in place. As a teen how many of us did exactly everything our parents wanted us to do? Even with the best of parents kids get in trouble. There is a college in Virginia that a young woman can go to with her child and recieve housing and an education, GOOD Luck and God Bless these young folks!
Unbelievable . . .
This article was my "snort my coffee" moment in the paper today.
Let's see, they closed the movie theater, we're bored with bowling, let's go make a baby.
But I don't blame the girls and their baby daddies so much as I hold their parents to be irresponsible and/or indifferent.
Never a worse reason for building a rec center however . . . there would still be couples sneaking out behind it . . . Cheers, MGM
Bored
I remember when we were kids and we were bored, WE WENT OUTSIDE!!! We packed up our montain bikes and rode to wherever we could. We saved up our $ for these trips because we would frequently stop for a nice sit-down lunch at a resturant in the historical district where I grew up. If it wasn't that, I was fishing, playing football, basketball, or other sports with other kids that lived around us. I grew up during the game console explosion. We had all of the new ones and games, but that was for when it was raining or too dark to see to do anything else. We all had good parents who managed to get us to understand what was acceptable and what was not. Back then unsupervised social networking was a group of friends in your basement ot room with thw door shut. Now there are far too many young kids acting far too adult and networtking on cell phones, myspace, and webcams without any parental control or supervision. Parents need to stop trying to be their child's "BUDDY" and be a true parent. Yeah, your kids may not think favorably of you 100% of the time, but I assure you the outcome is 100% better down the road.
If your teen has a computer w/ webcam in their room you are asking for t
It's Not What You Think
These young ladies are not bored, stupid, etc., nor do they lack access to birth control. The comments relative to a lack of parenting come closer to the truth. The baby is made to give a young girl who has little self-esteem some status in the community. If you observe the behavior of the teen mothers, you will find that most of them have nothing else to be proud of, and no one has taken the time to show them that the larger community will give them recognition for education, jobs, the types of things that so-called successful people have. These things have little meaning to some of the young ladies because no one around them has achieved them. Give these young people some sense of belonging to the entire community, not just their peer group.
Fat chance.
Kids are getting pregnant not because they are bored, but because they are young, immoral, and stupid. In my youth, a guy who knocked up a girl was considered an idiot. His parents (yes, we had two), would tell him...."you made your bed....now lay in it!" In many cases, the baby would be put up for adoption, if the girl was very young, but would rarely be murdered in the womb (I think they call that abortion now). The girl would be ostracised and mocked by her former friends, perhaps sent to a home to await the baby. Few would think it was fashionable or "cool".
But, given the degradation of the media, the permissiveness of society, the acceptance of abortion, and the tolerance of euphemisms such as "friends with benefits" and "hooking up", we are facing an epidemic. What to do about it? Two-parent homes and more morals in society wouldn't hurt, but fat chance of that happening in our current "anything goes" climate.
Let's See
There were 490 teen pregnacies in Virginia Beach and if you can't find something to do, you're not trying. Boredom has nothing to do with it. It is a lack of education from the parents and the schools. From the article, there is no sex ed in Franklin. Why not?
More teens are getting pregnant
because more teens are having sex. This is not a result of boredom. Media inundates everyone with images of sex and images of sexy people. Sex is not treated as a something to be shared within marriage. Women dress like prostitues. We live in a society that teaches if it feels good, you should be doing it. Right and wrong do not matter anymore. Role models are diminishing as well. Reading FOX news assures you that the people making the most money, the people best known -- celebrities -- are flaunting their right to pose nude, to act out sex on television, etc. Why should teens think their life should be any less glamorous? If adults are doing it, why not teens with the same hormones as adults?
Then, add to that the fact that many of these pregnant teens are barely parented by anyone and many are following their own mother's example of promiscuity.
Kidding right??
Nothing to do and BORED-your joking? I think between the adults and children they are just making excuses! Every teen is bored, and really now we have so much more education, and ways to prevent teens from getting pregnant. Where are the parents, where are these kids going? I really thought this would not be topic, teen pregnancy 2008?!?! They are educated but choice to ignore and then play the blame game. Get a clue wise up; a baby isn’t going to make your life more exciting, just more work and stress. Too much for a teen who gets BORED!
Oh for heaven's sakes
Folks are getting pregnant b/c they're bored now? I grew up in the Franklin/Southampton County area and believe me there was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay less to do back then. I graduated from High School in 1982 btw...in case you're wondering. We had no movie theater, no bowling alley, no super WalMart, no Applebees, no anything hardly..except for a Skating Rink and the Foosball palace(Oh how I miss that place..yeah!)and Friday nite hogh school football games and guess what? I only had one(1) friend that got pregnant before graduating high school. So explain to me how them being bored, with everything that is there NOW for them to do, is the reason for all of these pregnancies. Go to the library, go to the movies, go bowling, go shopping, or just stay home!!
Societal?
Where are the mothers and fathers who are supposed to be teaching these kids some morals? Just because there's nothing to do doesn't mean you have to have sex and if you're going to anyway- use some method of birth control. In today's world you can't tell me that any kid over the age of 12 doesn't know about different methods of birth control. The easiest and most readily available are condoms. The kids today are just too lazy or too stupid to use them and it all goes back to the parenting. I can't help but wonder of all the teenage pregnancies in Franklin- how many of those mothers are also the product of a teen pregnancy? It's just one big cycle- unwed teen mothers breeding unwed teen mothers....
excuses
There will always be excuses with these teen pregnancies. I say the parents are the ones to blame. It's a cycle.
If there's nothing to do, pick up a hobby.
Where are the parents?
Home training, home training, and more home training is how to cut the statistic! It requires the effort of BOTH parents. Franklin is not Obama land, but every kid and parent should listen to his "Father's Day" speech about taking responsibility.