ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 6, 1997 TAG: 9703060026
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETH MACY/THE ROANOKE TIMES
KATRINA BECKNER sits on the couch of her one-bedroom, furnished apartment watching the TV weather report. Her son, Austin, sways in the baby swing next to her, dreaming away his late-afternoon nap.
He's oblivious to the January snowstorm that's about to occur; can't hear his 17-year-old parents discussing what they'll do if the snow makes the late-night roads impassable. Katrina's boyfriend must pick her up every night from her second-shift job at Taco Bell - because, among other reasons, the 1980 Celica outside is their only car.
Katrina cracks her knuckles as she watches WDBJ weatherman Robin Reed glide across his snow-covered map.
If she is thinking, That could've been me, she doesn't say so.
There was a time in this young woman's life when she swore she would never get married, never have kids. ``What I wanted to do back then was go out on the road and do the weather report,'' she says.
``I wanted to be the person who could tell everybody when the storm was coming.''
But like the weather, teen life is wrought with unexpected fronts.
First there was her decision to transfer from Floyd County High School to Patrick Henry so she could work after school.
Then there was Kenny Smith, the 17-year-old redhead she met while working at Burger King. They dated a couple months before she learned she was pregnant - while on the pill.
The pregnancy led to nine months of morning sickness, which led to Katrina, an A-B student, dropping out of school.
Austin Jeremiah Smith was born Oct. 2, 1996, a few weeks before his mom turned 17. He left the hospital for life in a basement apartment with two teen-age parents who take turns watching him when they're not at their full-time jobs.
They are old enough to have a baby. But they are not old enough to rent an apartment - not according to most rental guidelines anyway.
Most rental policies, however, don't take into account the doggedness of Katrina Beckner.
Raised in the mountains of Floyd County by a father who drives trucks and a mother who scrambles to work two fast-food jobs, this 17-year-old does not cotton much to the word ``no.''
She figures she called at least 20 apartment managers before she found one who'd rent them an apartment in Roanoke's Old Southwest neighborhood last July (Kenny's mom had to co-sign the lease).
``I just really had to convince this lady we'd pay it - and on time,'' coming up with the first month's $300 rent, plus a $200 deposit. The utility company was easier, letting them spread the deposit over three payments. The phone company was adamantly opposed - no phone until Kenny is 18.
They do have cable television, though. A next-door neighbor lets them use her phone. The requisite first-apartment plaid couch and matching chair came with the furnishings.
Katrina recently bought matching peach wall decorations to spruce up the place. Baby pictures of Austin and two wilting roses - remnants of a 2-week-old Valentine's Day gift from Kenny - line the TV.
Sherry Lucas, a social worker for the Health Department-run Resource Mothers program, says Katrina is the most determined client among her caseload of 26 teen mothers. Lucas advocates for teen moms and their families, helping them find jobs and access medical care. Although Katrina and Kenny have no medical insurance, Austin receives Medicaid, which is the only public assistance the couple receives.
``Getting an apartment on her own is extremely rare, and she was 16 at the time,'' Lucas says. ``They're just both trying so hard to make it. They don't have time to sit around and cry and whine about the things they don't have.''
She is old enough to have a baby. But, because of a law that forces teen moms to stay in school in order to get a driver's license, she can't drive.
So, at 4:30 every afternoon, Kenny drives Katrina to her second-shift job at Taco Bell. Then again around midnight, he wakes the baby, packs him up in the car seat, and drives to pick up Katrina.
A neighbor has offered to keep Austin at night while Kenny makes the run, but the teen-agers don't want to impose. They like doing it on their own.
Katrina doesn't mind manning the cash registers at Taco Bell, but she'd like to become shift manager. ``They say you can be one if you're really good with people,'' she says. She is.
``But you gotta be 18 to do certain things there.''
Like operate the tomato slicer.
If this were the 1950s, Kenny Smith would be one of those guys you'd see tinkering with big American cars after school, a pack of Marlboros rolled into his T-shirt sleeve.
But Kenny, who grew up in Texas and moved to Virginia when he was 13, prefers sports jerseys to T-shirts, stuffing his long red ponytail into his Dallas Cowboys cap.
He didn't like school much, he says. Stopped going after he bought his car, which used to be yellow and full of rust spots - before the primer.
There's no room for groceries in the hatchback because every available inch is taken up with one of those monster car-stereo speakers.
Kenny doesn't play the thumping stereo anymore, though. It'll wake up the baby. He doesn't get to cruise around in his car much, either.
He spends his days changing oil for Magic Lube, his nights at home with the baby while Katrina works. An older friend is trying to get Kenny into a GED study program, but he's not as motivated to attend school as Katrina. The same friend is also pushing him to take advanced car-mechanic training, but Kenny hasn't yet followed up.
The fact that Kenny is supportive - the fact that he's even there - is rare for a teen father. Among Lucas' caseload of 26, for instance, only three of the moms live with, and receive support from, the fathers of their babies.
``It's been a big slap in the face at times,'' he says of parenthood. ``It will make you grow up real quick.
``It's harder than I thought. You wouldn't figure you'd have to get up three or four times during the night. You see people doing it on TV, and it doesn't look like it's that hard, but it is.''
Says Katrina: ``I like kids, but I'm kinda like grandmas: I like them to go home.''
The hardest part, she adds, ``is when your friends want you to go places, and you can't.'' When her mom takes Austin on the weekends, sometimes the young couple goes to a monster-truck rally, or to play laser tag at a sports and arcade center in Salem. If they can afford it.
If they can't, sometimes they just go for a drive. That's what they were doing the weekend Katrina spotted Mount Pleasant Baptist Church - and decided on the spot that's where they'd get married. Their wedding is scheduled for April 5.
Kenny has since convinced her it would be cheaper and easier to get married at the Mill Mountain Star. That's where he proposed to Katrina shortly after Austin was born. "I think it'd be pretty cool to get married at the star at sunset," he says. "Kinda romantic."
Katrina's mom, Becky Beckner, is behind the marriage. It was Becky, in fact, who introduced her daughter to Kenny - they were all working at Burger King at the time. "When she got pregnant, my husband threw a fit," Becky says.
"And Ken told him, 'I'll take care of the situation,' and he has. He's a good boy, Kenny. He doesn't smoke, drink, do drugs. A boy his age, that's really hard to find."
Family responsibilities have been good for Katrina, her mom adds. Stubborn her whole life, Katrina ran away once when she was 14 - for three days.
"One thing about little Austin coming along, now I don't worry about where she's at, what she's doing," Becky says. "He's tied her down real good."
In many ways, Kenny and Katrina seem already married. They squabble over who does the dishes. Over Katrina's version of meatloaf, which Kenny thinks is too mushy.
Over Kenny's tendency not to share his thoughts. ``You have to grind the feelings stuff outta him,'' Katrina says. They argue over the use of the baby swing - Katrina thinks Kenny relies on it too heavily to pacify the child.
Asked what he does during the evening when he keeps Austin, Kenny says: ``Mostly I just sit here watching TV. When I get bored, I like to take pictures of him.''
And when, finally, their 18-hour days are said and done?
They're too tired for anything but sleep - and afraid contraception might fail them again.
``Now that [Austin's] here, I love him to death,'' Katrina says. ``But I never want any more kids. Never.''
She's old enough to have a baby, but too young to go to college. That's what Roanoke City Schools told her anyway, after Katrina had already secured a $1,400 Pell Grant and admission to Virginia Western Community College.
She was registered to attend a program that allows teens to earn college credit and GED certification at the same time, but Katrina says a school official refused to give her the required permission to attend, citing official school policy.
Ann Harman, executive for student services, could not talk about the case, but did cite compulsory school-attendance laws.
"If they're 17 and [their class is on] track to graduate within six months, we can release them," she says, "but it's real rare."
The schools offer programs to help teen moms stay in school, "otherwise you're going to have 16-year-olds dropping out to take the GED and that's not all it's cracked up to be."
Exceptions are made only in extreme cases, Harmon says, such as a student who has to work full time to support a dying parent.
But Lucas, the Resource Mothers social worker, says the schools have made exceptions for some of her other teen clients.
``They wanted her to go to the pregnant-teens school so she can have a baby sitter and child care while she goes to school. But that's not what she needs; she's way beyond that.''
Meanwhile, Virginia Western counselor Mike Henderson advised her to see if her old school in Floyd County - where her parents still reside - might be able to release her to attend. "She's a nice kid, and she deserves a break," Henderson said.
In four interviews, it's the only subject that visibly rattles Katrina. ``It would take me two or three years to graduate going to the pregnant-teens school, and I don't have time for that," she snaps.
``We have bills to pay. I need to work.''
Which is what she'll continue to do until she turns 18 in October. She hopes to study computers, so she can get a better job some day.
She's abandoned her weather-girl goal for something more easily attainable, at least for the time being.
``I want to be able to provide a nice home and be able to give the baby what he needs, that's all,'' she says. ``I don't want any sympathy, and I don't want any charity.
``I mean, we can work. We're not disabled.''
For now, the closest she comes to her old goal is running into part-time weatherman Patrick Evans, who sometimes comes to Taco Bell. ``He's not snooty at all,'' she says.
``I ask him if it's gonna snow sometimes. One time, he said, yeah, but no accumulation. And man, it snowed almost a foot.''
LENGTH: Long : 221 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: JANEL RHODA. 1. Katrina and Austin cuddle during anby CNBearly afternoon nap, while Kenny works his day job at a Roanoke
Magic Lube. 2. When Katrina first looked for a job, it was
frustrating because she lacks the basic age and education
requirements. 3. Kristina Beckner and her fiance, Kenny Smith, both
17, are working hard to make a good life for their 4-month-old son,
Austin. The young family lives in a one-bedroom basement apartment
in Roanoke. 4. Katrina checks on Kenny and Austin as she gets ready
to go to her night job at Taco Bell. The couple split their work
schedule so they can share babysitting duties. 5. Katrina changes
Austin in the bedroom where all three family members sleep. A
shoebox holds the necessary baby lotions and powders. 6. Katrina is
tense as she waits for Kenny to come home from work one evening.
When Kenny is late, Katrina is late for her evening shift at Taco
Bell because Kenny must take her to and from work. 7. Katrina says
she doesn't mind working the cash registers at Taco Bell, though she
aspires to be a shift manager. Many jobs, however, require a minimum
age of 18. 8. Austin gets a quick peek from his mother as she
showers to get ready for work. 9. After a long day of work and a
short night of sleep, Kenny relaxes in front of the television while
Austin enjoys his play set. 10. Kenny and Katrina enjoy a game of
cards with their friend, Clayton Burton, 19. The couple have
weekends off from work, and their parents often baby-sit Austin from
Friday night through Sunday night, which gives the young parents a
break. color.