One Louisiana school is dealing with the state’s high rates of teen pregnancy by taking an “out of sight, out of mind” approach. No pregnant students are welcome at Delhi Charter School in Delhi, Louisiana — a policy that the institution enforces by requiring students who are “suspected” of being pregnant to submit to a mandatory pregnancy test.
If students are pregnant, they are no longer allowed to attend classes on the school’s campus and will be forced to either switch to another school or begin a home school program. If a student refuses to take the test, she is “treated as a pregnant student” and also kicked out of Delhi Charter School, according to the student handbook. ...Think Progress
The school is breaking the law -- specifically, as TP points out -- Title IX which prohibits discrimination based on gender. The 14th Amendment and the Equal Protection clause also stand in the way of the Delhi Charter School.
Maybe, for a change, they should dump the boys who are responsible for the pregnancy. Or maybe they should just chill and start offering sex education programs and contraceptives. Conservatives create problems and then try to make everyone else pay for them.
Aside from its unconstitutional premise, the charter school’s policy toward pregnant students is also furthering a serious education gap between teen mothers and the young women who do not have unplanned pregnancies. Thirty percent of all teen girls who drop out of high school cite pregnancy as the main reason. And a full 70 percent of teenage girls who give birth end up leaving school — although if New Delhi Charter School had its way, that statistic might be closer to 100 percent. ...Think Progress
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