By Lauren Roth, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.
Jul. 2–Each year, several dozen teenage girls in Franklin get pregnant.
The number might seem small compared with the 2,716 teen pregnancies in South Hampton Roads in 2006. But in this city of 8,400 surrounded by Southampton and Isle of Wight counties, a few dozen adds up to more than 6 percent of the community’s teenage girls.
The rate of teen pregnancies in Franklin was nearly 2-1/2 times the state average every year from 2004 to 2006, according to the latest data from the state Department of Health.
City and school officials said they are aware of the pattern and are searching for ways to derail it.
“Young girls are defining themselves through motherhood,” said Beth Reavis, director of social services for the city of Franklin. She is seeking grant funding to start programs aimed at preventing teen pregnancies. “The only thing that changes that dynamic is education,” she said.
The reports that a group of girls at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts may have coordinated their pregnancies has drawn attention to the issues of teen sexuality and contraception. A school nurse and doctor there resigned in protest after city officials spurned their plan to offer contraceptives without a prescription, according to Time magazine.
In the area stretching from Southampton County in the west to Virginia Beach in the east, teen pregnancies dropped 5.6 percent between 2004 and 2006, bucking the state trend. However, the pregnancy rate for teenagers in this region remains well above state norms, particularly in Norfolk and Portsmouth. In Virginia Beach alone, 837 teen girls were pregnant in 2006, state figures show.
Statewide, 13,704 girls were pregnant that year, a rate of 2.7 percent. Nearly 20 percent of those pregnancies were in the South Hampton Roads area.
In Franklin, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia offered an abstinence-based sex education curriculum for grades six to 10 during the 2006-07 school year. The classes were well-received, said Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Erin Zabel, but the group was not invited back the following year. The organization considers Franklin a priority area because the teen pregnancy rate there is one of the state’s highest.
“A new administration came on and had different opinions about teaching kids sex education,” Zabel said.
Of the 37 teen pregnancies in Franklin in 2006, 26 resulted in births. Nine of those were to girls age 15 to 17.
William Lawrence, an assistant principal at Franklin High School, said high numbers of teen pregnancies spurred his school to begin separating male and female students for more frank sex education sessions several years ago.
Lawrence said the school also started girls’ and boys’ clubs last fall that match students with mentors in the community.
“It’s to build morale and positive self-image and help that roll over into reducing the pregnancy rate,” he said.
Lawrence said it’s too early to tell whether the initiatives are working.
Beverly Rabil, associate director of instruction for Franklin schools, is to meet with the city’s guidance counselors in August to discuss strategies for reducing teen pregnancies.
“First, you have to come to the table and discuss that it’s an issue,” Rabil said. “That’s where we are now. It’s a good start.”
Both Rabil and Reavis, the social services director, said it will need to be a citywide effort.
“I see a great disempowerment of women in this community,” Reavis said. “It’s definitely something we need to address.”
Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, [email protected].
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