Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 29, 1995 TAG: 9511290085
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Never mind that it was raining and that hockey fans packed the Roanoke Civic Center parking lot - more than 200 Roanokers turned out Tuesday night to brainstorm how to reduce the city's high rate of teen pregnancy.
Quite a few were teen mothers themselves, who filled flip-chart pages with pointers for the city's Teen Pregnancy Task Force.
They were adamant that parents, teachers and everybody else start talking openly about sex and do it early in a child's schooling. They said young people don't know what they're getting into the first time they have sexual intercourse.
Is it simple facts or something else that kids especially need in sex education? school administrator Annie Harmon asked the 50 young people in a special workshop for the under-18 crowd.
Instantly, she was answered with a chorus of kids shouting, "Fact! Fact! Fact!"
"Most of us don't know that much," said one girl.
"I know from experience," said another teen-age girl, without elaboration.
Yet another said of her female peers, "They're not thinking, 'I'll lay down, spread my legs and ... get pregnant.''' She said kids aren't aware of the consequences of sex, pregnancy and becoming a parent.
"Frighten them a little," said a young man.
Teachers, counselors, parents, anti-poverty workers and at least one unsuccessful General Assembly candidate, Republican Jeff Artis, were among those at the two-hour town meeting. They split into groups in the civic center's Exhibit Hall to give their suggestions to facilitators.
The task force didn't have enough time to share all the ideas with the whole crowd. But co-chairman Ted Feinour said the members, having done research on teen pregnancy for a year and a half, probably will meet again next month and will give City Manager Bob Herbert their final recommendations in February or March.
Roanoke has the state's third-highest pregnancy rate among 15- to 19-year-olds; although the rate in that age group leveled off recently, the rate among 10- to 14-year-olds is rising.
Harmon asked the gathering of teens and younger kids what "abstinence" means, and only a few raised their hands.
Some teens said boys and girls who have babies - even teens as young as 13 - should be totally responsible for them: Stay in school, get a job and take no public assistance. Others conceded that kids so young, and even those years older, would need help from somewhere.
The topic hit home with Marie Smith, 18, a senior at Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy. After the town meeting, she said she talks frequently with younger kids about her life as the mother of a 2-year-old daughter. "I tell them it's hard. They think it's a joke. I don't think it's a joke. I made a big mistake, and I wish I could start all over again."
In a way, she is. She expects to graduate from high school next spring, then go to college and become a counselor.
The night's discussion had a personal punch for another teen-age girl, who asked that she not be named.
She's 14, a freshman at Patrick Henry High School, and pregnant. She was there with a girlfriend, also pregnant.
"If I could go back, I'd change, and I wouldn't have sex, period," she said.
But she said she's going to take care of her baby and try to move on with her life.
"I was woman enough to lie down and have sex," she said. "I'm woman enough to take care of my baby."
by CNB