This may sound bizarre but it is absolutely true. A high school in Memphis is facing this crisis now and they are after resolving it by educating the teenagers in the school about unwanted pregnancies.

Fraser High School at Memphis has at least 90 girls who are pregnant or already gave birth to a child. This sounds something really awful.

This awkward situation has raised alarm to the whole education system and its effectiveness on today's teenagers. There is also a pressing demand of proper sex education in schools so that these young children can gauge the harms of the explicit relationships.

Fraser High School has 978 students out of which 508 are girls. It means almost 18% of the girls students are facing the problem with pregnancy or have already become a mother.

Ms. Deborah Hester Harrison from the organisation Girls Inc says her institution explains to girls about the harms of unwanted pregnancy and how to avoid it.

She blames lack of education to be the cause of this crisis. At Fraser County there is a 26% rate of teenage pregnancy which is twice of the national average.

She blames the media to be primarily responsible for the situation. She says, "'So much of our society is sexually oriented. As adults we can look at that and it doesn't impact us, but kids are different."

Found this posted by Bubba The Love Sponge [a radio guy from Tampa] on Facebook....

Source: http://topnews.us/content/232605-90-pregnant-students-memphis-high-school

This is really really sad.... *tsk* i remembered when i was in highschool (class of 04) i was a freshman and this senior girl was telling me how there would be like 2 3 girls preg when SHE was a freshman so that had to be 1996 because i was a freshman in 2000 and then it was 9 girls preg when she was a senior, now when i became a senior, there was about 20ish girls preg.

I would tell you that some of our districts are very embarrassing, one school had the smallest gradutating class in HISTORY and that was like in 06, over half the senior class DROPPED out - a girl who used to be a friend of mine dropped out two weeks before graduating all because she was .5 credits behind and they were gonna let her walk if she would have taken summer class for that .5 which is pretty bad because its now bitting her in the butt from what i hear and she struggled to work her way back up where she is at.

I wonder if Lifetime will make a "Pregnancy Pact 2" movie now. Set in Memphis of course.

She blames the media to be primarily responsible for the situation. She says, "'So much of our society is sexually oriented. As adults we can look at that and it doesn't impact us, but kids are different."

The media, while not all innocent, cannot be primarily blamed. Sexuality is human nature. But parents have to know what is inappropriate for their children to watch and what is inappropriate and some parents don't draw the line or don't know where to. I also blame the parents who protest Sex Ed classes being taught. Knowledge is power and these kids don't have the basic knowledge of what consequences sex can bring.

Another factor is home life. A lot of these kids want to get pregnant and have a baby because that baby means someone loves and needs them unconditionally and that may be something that they aren't getting at home for many reasons such as divorce, drugs, or alcohol on part of the parent(s).

parents and schools should do a better job at teaching kids how to use a freaking condom if they can't keep it in their pants, but still you can make it to being a teen and learn what condoms etc are from other sources these days i feel. tv, the internet, other teens etc. i just can't help but feel like these kids are either desperate for something they can love or they're just down right fucking stupid.

But no! Teaching children about sex and condoms is morally wrong! KEEP THAT SMUT AWAY FROM OUR CHILDREN!

ALL THESE TEACHERS WANT TO DO IS SHOW PORN TO MY PRECIOUS LITTLE ANGEL!

lol. when i was taught sex ed, we threw around diaphrams and were scared out of sex via one teacher describing in detail how gross giving birth is, and another telling us about how they test for various std's and how gross those are ;D

Hahaha, that's actually a good idea.

A teacher saying, "YOU WILL PROBABLY LAY A SHIT ON THE TABLE," will scare a bunch of prettied-up teenagers to not having children for a while.

she basically told us she has this really hot doctor and she took a huge shit in front of him and was mortified. all the girls were basically like: "YOU CAN SHIT WHILE YOU GIVE BIRTH?!" lmao. the male teacher told us all about the time he got crabs and the clap. ew. he also told the guys about how they test for std's by shoving things up your pee hole. i think that's what put them off, for like, a day maybe haha.

Now that sounds like the way to teach sex ed! Scare the crap out of 'em so they won't rush into it. :-)

Prolly not a Dozen Daddies among the 90 girls.

im sure most of them want a spot on" teen mom" too

Wowwwwwwwww that's just effin' crazy!!! My highschool didn't offer sex ed. The only thing it offered was health, freshmen year.. It talked like, less than one chapter about sex. Maybe that's why this happened. That or somebody needs to learn some tricks to stop gettin' so damn horny.
It's probably some stupid Highschool pact. One group of friends thought about it and now everyone wants to be in it. Hoes!!!! Ha no really!!!

lack of education is BS....when you are a high school student you know having sex means you could get pregnant and catch diseases. These kids need stricter guidelines and discipline. When I was in HS I had friends whose parents let their bfs stay the night and practically live with them. I had friends whose parents let them date guys 5-7 yrs their senior. My parents were strict. We weren't allowed to date until we were 16ish. My parents kept a pretty tight leash on us and they made it their business to know who we were with, what we were doing, we were given curfews, and rules. Not saying I was the perfect child and didn't go behind my back but bcuz my parents kept such a tight hold on us I didn't do alot of the things my friends were doing. I had friends in HS having abortions and catching STI's and STD's. Thankfully my sister and I made it out of our teens without having to worry about those decisions and situations. I think parents today have gotten really lax when it comes to boundries and remembering their teens are still children. The computer should be in the family room, supervised, cell phones shouldnt be given to kids, and curfews are a must.

behind my parents back***

Wow this is really close to me. I really wish I could say it surprises me but it doesn't. I was once a "statistic" as you could say. I was pregnant my senior year & gave birth 2 weeks after my high school graduation. It's really sad to see such young girls putting themselves through unneeded stress & hardship.

I had sex education in 7th grade. It didn't stop me from getting pregnant. I think these girls would respond MUCH better to another young mother tell their story. I mean you see all these things on tv like "teen mom" "16 & pregnant" but it's just what it is TV. You don't think what could happen to someone on Tv could happen to you. I have always wanted to be able to talk to young girls & tell them "I am you! I was in your shoes. I wanted to have sex and I did, I got pregnant & it CAN happen to YOU..NOT just to someone on Tv, your friends, or someone who've heard about. It could be you trying to juggle a job, college, and raising a 3 year old. It could be you LOSING all your friends & being ostracized from senior prom, senior parties, and all the other exciting things you do in high school. It could be you wondering where you are going to live with a baby."

I just think young girls would respond better to someone they can RELATE too rather than 30, 40 something year olds teaching them how to put a condom on!

@Malakyla: I know there's programmes here where teen mums do just that, going into schools and youth clubs and telling other teens how hard it really is to bring up a baby. I saw something about it on TV recently and the teens said afterwards that it had definitely made them think more carefully about having sex and using contraception.

Errr I cannot focus now, I am in a relaxed state from the wine I am drinking but I did love the few responses that I have read. I never gave my view on it though because I have been kind of busy the past two days so I haven't been on the computer too, too much.

I would think it would maybe be the school lacking a bit but MOSTLY parenting. I have taken health classes one in 6th grade which was required and one required credit in 10th grade. The classes in school though the thing is that when it comes to these "SEX - ED" classes a lot of teens like to "giggle" at the class and crack jokes so they're not taking it as seriously or well it doesn't appear that they are. I had to take sex ed with FRESHMAN in my class in highschool and UGH I hated that, one of the freshman boys tried commenting at me "I bet you're a virgin" ooh wow, you're cool now for your totally WRONG observation. I was probably the quietest and shyest in that class. The parenting end well come on you think it's awkward talking to your parents about sex, I believe it's more awkward for them to talk to us about sex, my Ma made my sister give me the talk FOR HER, can you imagine [well she is 8 years older than me] I don't think Ma ever gave me the sex talk until she happened to find out I was having sex but she wasn't informing me about the use of a condom oh no her talk was more of a "DON'T HAVE SEX AT ALL TALK]

It beats me why any teenager WOULD want a kid, I wish there was a service out there like to rent babys out or something maybe like not to "take home" maybe more like a supervised building where you take care of the kid for a day or something to see what it is like, or a program where you sign up and go to the "host parents house" where they teach you about what you're getting into because that fake doll in childcare glass just aint good enough apparently! I am 23 now and well [I'll write about this story in my diary sometime] Taija [basically Asia with a T in the front is how tou pronounce her name] lives with my parents and she has a 7 month old and I won't hold the baby for very long or do any labor work because infants scare me, even my brother I'd always hand him over when he needed something because I cannot deal with it, these teenagers need to realize that this JOB takes a LOT of PATIENCE to do! Not only that but the kid could grow up to be an annoying little fucker like my brother [he's 6 I love him to death but GOD is he annoying] I don't have to deal with it like 24/7 but as a parent there is NO ESCAPING that, I would probably end up being taken by CPS if he was my child literally or be court ordered to take anger management classes [well maybe that's over exaggerating it] but yesterday I actually asked him "Do you want to die young?" because I volunteered to give his room a throrough make over and he wouldn't quit pulling out toys that I put away and jumping on furniture and saying ...manda... manda... manda... set up my wii.... video games... video games... and this lasted TWO HOURS... I found out that MA didn't give him his adderal that day that is one incident but I have MANY MORE....

I don't believe the media hype, I think the media says that to get more attention but ah heh... if you want a show to BREAK all your "baby desires" you should watch TEEN MOM... that show MAKES me want to get my tubes tied! I think Maci is the best Mom on that show out of season 1 and two, Leah I guess for season 2... but Jenelle is my favorite because she reminds me of me a bit [personality wise] I'm glad for TeenMom but the sad thing is that some girls might be ree-ree's and try to get pregnant just to be on the show.. I'm sure of it, oh and did you know that MACI is from TENNESSEE, I'm just saying lol alright.

My first highschool....was a bit of a dive...really - anyone who grew up in the area really didn't aspire to be much. I'm not saying EVERYONE didn't aspire to anything, it's just - some. I'd say a good 1/3 of the girls in my year level were pregnant (or had given birth) by the time senior year rolled around. A LOT more got pregnant by the time they were 19. I'm 23 now and most of those girls are pregnant with their 2nd or 3rd child.

I'm not saying people who get pregnant before they turn 20 don't aspire to be anything, I guess you had to live in the area to understand where I come from when I say that it was a really - yeh...bad place.

I remember wanting to move out of that state for SO long and when I finally got out, people (from back there) use to ask me how it felt to finally move and I kept saying "I got out of that place without being arrested, an addict, or with a baby on my hip, how do you think it feels? Again, it's just the area - a good percetange of people from there fit into those 3 categories.

In all fairness, it wasn't a BAD place. There are a lot worse places in this world! It wasn't really a slum or anything like that, it was a really pretty place that had some really messed up people living there. I think a huge contributing factor in the situation was - it was all down to lifestyle. I knew countless parents who were divorced who knows how many times, had hooked up with who knows how many people and too many kids to count; I knew parents who were addicts, who slept around, who weren't there for their kids, didn't discipline their kids or generally - there was no stability in the childs life. So history repeats...those kids grew into teenages....who thought their parents behaviour was acceptable ...and went and did it themselves. OR alternatively...couldn't get the attention and love from their parents - so went and got it elsewhere.

I know health was a compulsory subject for.....3 years I think and I think I took it as a subject in my senior year just to get my grades up. It was more about drugs and general health to be quiet honest. I always thought of it as Sex Ed...but when I think about it - I don't remember focussing on sex THAT much, it was maybe a few weeks out of the year we'd do sex education.

BUT the reason I finally decided to write this was....I think I've mentioned this before...but in year 10, I...what happened *thinks* I'm pretty sure I had been taking Dance as a subject in grade 8 and 9, but when I started doing it in year 10 - I didn't like the teacher, so a friend and I both decided to drop dance and take up a home economics class or something. For 1 semester (so like,...5 months...roughly) this home eco. class was actually a parenting class. I kid you not, we learnt how to make diapers, make baby food, change babies, bath babies - EVERYTHING you'd expect to learn before giving birth - we learnt it in 10th grade. It wasnt about prevention of getting pregnant, there was nothing taught about avoding pregnancy - it was strictly about how to care about babies I think the ONLY thing that may have worked to prevent a pregnancy was the time some of us got to take home an electronic baby and well - yeh not many people slept that night.

I don't know if that class was a good thing or not (I'm going to say not) - but all I know is - quite a number of the girls in that class were pregnant pretty darn early.

@Kerri♥Blue
We had the same type of parenting class at my first high school, I took it as a freshmen. I liked it, I always related it more towards babysitting than having my own children (as I had no desire at all to be parent at that time, and I wasn't having sex yet either way [as no high school freshmen should be!!]), but I've always loved kids so it appealed to me. I did learn some pretty useful things, a lot about child development and such. We also had the electronic Baby Think it Over, which I did take home. I didn't think I did too badly with it, but when I brought it back I had 9 neglects! lol, guess it didn't cry loud enough to wake me from my sleep ;). I'm pretty sure prevention was at least part of the curriculum, I cant recall it being, but the teacher was really wonderful and I cant imagine she framed the course in a way that suggested people should go out and get pregnant to apply what they learned. Maybe a parenting class would be more appropriate for college lol.

I think education is the best way to prevent teen pregnancies. Whether it be at school or home or (preferably) both. Plus accessible birth control. Home life definitely plays a huge role though too. I graduated from a rich yuppie town and only one person (ironically, she was not one of the yuppie kids) was pregnant in the entire school the 2 1/2 years I went there. I can only imagine this is because it simply wouldn't have been acceptable for these kids to come home pregnant. It would have been seriously looked down upon, probably more so than it already is in most places. I know it wouldn't have been acceptable for me to get pregnant at that age, that was always made VERY clear to me growing up. Not to say I didn't start having sex in high school, but I used protection too and I was well aware that it COULD happen to me if I wasn't careful. Almost all of the kids in that school were expected to go onto a 4 year college without exception, obviously that's much more difficult with a baby on your hip. Parents got that through to their kids somehow apparently (or at least dished out the cash to bring them to the clinic if there was a mishap :-/...)

I'm going to have to agree with the viewpoints of the people who think it's mostly parenting. I come from a stricter family home compared to the rest of my peers..I wasn't allowed to go out, party, or have a boy over without my parents home. Most people I knew had their parents buy their alcohol for them! I just wasn't allowed to do whatever I want, which helped me stay out of the wrong crowds and be pressured into having sex early. Most, but not all, teens who get pregnant are because they don't have any stability in their life (whether it be in their homes, with their grades, etc) and do whatever they think is "cool." I also agree that we should have better sex education. Giving out condoms won't instantly make teens want to have sex..hell, we can buy them from any grocery or drug store, but it will help this epidemic a little.

Yeah, blame the media. Because teen pregnancy never happened before 1980. Sigh.

Kids have sex. Kids like sex. Kids are often ridiculously naieve about contraception. SO TEACH THEM! Parents - teach them. Teachers - teach them. Older siblings - teach them.

This doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Heck, how many teen mum's do we have on bloop? It's getting better now, but it used to be an epidemic. Obviously this is the medias fault for not telling people when you have unprotected sex you risk pregnancy. Because when you're in your teens, you don't always know that. (sarcasm)

If you want sex, you're going to have sex. Doesn't matter if your parents are strict, doesn't matter how educated you are. You throw hormone raging kids together and they're gonna get it on. I wish people wouldn't put such a taboo on teenage sex. That makes condoms that much more awkward and people less likely to use them.

This is really sad. When I was in HS, we never received any type of sex-ed. I basically learned everything from Seventeen & Cosmo magazines. It was a taboo subject and much hasn't changed. I do agree with all of you who have said that the parents need to be more strict with their kids and teach their kids about sex. My husband and I plan on telling our kids about the risks of being sexually active.

IMO, shows like 16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom don't glamorize teen pregnancy. If anything they show how hard it is. Some of the girls are working, going to school and raising a baby!

Wow lol. We had no kids who got pregnant at school but a few got pregnant the second they left.

Our sex ed was terrible; I remember we had ONE lesson in year 8 (aged 12-13) and it was all focused around preventing pregnancy; STIs were hardly discussed. As a result, stupid 18 year old me had unprotected sex with a bloke and just worried about the getting pregnant bit, so I got the morning after pill. It was only after my mother sussed out what had happened that I realised I had put myself in real danger. Thankfully, I didn't contract anything from him. But the fact that the thought never crossed my mind at 18 years old really is a testament to the terrible sex ed here, at least ten years ago.