ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 25, 1997 TAG: 9703250061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FREDERICKSBURG
SOURCE: CATHY JETT THE FREE-LANCE STAR
Participants take home life-sized dolls that give loud, heart-wrenching wails at unpredictable moments, just like real babies.
Kalsey DeBoise was thrilled when she got a baby boy.
The James Monroe High School 10th-grader examined his tiny toes, wrapped him tightly in a blanket and strapped him into a plastic car seat so she could take him home from her family life class.
Then the computerized doll she named D'Shun Nathan DeBoise for a recent weekend homework assignment began to do something real babies do. He got ``colic'' and cried.
And cried.
And cried.
About every 15 minutes the entire weekend.
By Saturday morning, Kalsey was tired. By Sunday evening, she was exhausted. The only thing that kept her going was the knowledge that she could turn little D'Shun back in before school on Monday.
``I can't wait to get rid of this,'' she said. ``I don't think a real baby would cry this much.''
Kalsey's crash course in parenting is called Baby Think It Over. The Rappahannock Area Office on Youth began offering the program to area schools in 1994 after the teen pregnancy rate in the Fredericksburg area was the highest in the state for three years in a row.
``It was a new tool,'' said Beth Girone, the youth office's director. ``A lot of schools were using flour sacks or eggs as infant stand-ins. This gives students more of an actual parenting experience.''
Baby Think It Over works like this: Students - male and female - study parenting skills and write down their views on having a child, then take one of the dolls home for a weekend.
The life-sized dolls are designed to give loud, heart-wrenching wails at unpredictable moments, just like real babies.
Unlike real babies, however, that's all the dolls do. They don't gurgle and coo. Nor do they snuggle in a teen's arms and fall asleep.
``If all children were like this, the human race would have died out long ago,'' said Chris Van Valkenburgh, another James Monroe student in the program. ``No one would want a baby that just cried.''
To turn off the computerized wail, a student must insert an L-shaped plastic key into the doll's back and hold it there for up to 20 minutes. That's about the length of time a teen would need to diaper a real baby, feed it a bottle or rock it to sleep.
If a student fails to tend to a doll within a minute, the tiny computer in its body registers neglect. The chip also records ``abuse'' if the doll is shaken, dropped or hit.
Toting around a Baby Think It Over disrupts teens' lives in unaccustomed ways. Kendra Lewis had to interrupt a shopping trip at Spotsylvania Mall to tend her baby, while Chris had to drop out of a basketball game to quiet his baby.
``I got some funny looks,'' he said.
Kalsey ended up spending Saturday night at a friend's because her baby had kept her parents and 10-year-old brother up the night before.
To make sure students don't cheat and get someone to baby-sit for them during the assignment, the keys are attached to their wrists by a thick plastic band. If it isn't there when they bring the dolls back, they fail, teacher Sally Ann Marks said.
``The ones that take the doll first think it's going to be easier,'' Marks said. ``Once they come back and tell everyone what happens, I usually have a few drop out.''
Marks began using the dolls in the parenting section of her 10th-grade family life class last year. She added the program after four of her students, including a ninth-grader, got pregnant.
``I've had one or two teen-age girls that I know it made a difference for,'' Marks said. ``I knew they were sexually active and trying to keep a boyfriend. With this, it actually helped them realize the responsibility it took to raise a child.''
Waiting until 10th grade may be too late, Marks said. She's considering using the dolls or a new mentoring program with ninth-graders.
For Kalsey, staying up three nights with D'Shun was more than enough to persuade her to stick with her original goal to go into the military after graduation, then college.
``I want to wait until I'm in my 30s to have a baby,'' she said. ``I'd like to have two.''
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB