SHOCK: 115 Girls Out of 800 Girls at Paul Robeson High School in Chicago Pregnant, Officials Say A Mix Of Factors Are To Blame

The city of Chicago is in the news again and as usual, it is for the wrong reason. It seems that the girls at Paul Robeson High School have the a title no one else is vying for. The school has about 800 girls and 115 of them have something very troubling in common -- teenage pregnancy. According to CBS2's Christy Hartman, despite all the pregnancy prevention talks, these pregnancies still occurred. What is even more disturbing is that the people closest to this situation says there is no simple explanation.

Chicago Public Schools says it does not track the overall number of teen moms in the district. But Robeson Principal Gerald Morrow knows the count at his school in Englewood: 115 young ladies who are expecting. To put it in perspective, their school pictures would fill roughly six pages of their high school year book.

Why is it happening at Robeson?

"It can be a lot of things that are happening in the home or not happening in the home, if you will," Morrow said. Absentee fathers are another factor, he said.

LaDonna Denson and two other Robeson students say parents not talking to teens and, in some cases, the pursuit of public assistance also factor into the pregnancies. None of them thought they'd be moms at such a young age. They said they have support at home. But not all girls do, they said. In fact, some girls get thrown out of the home. Source: CBS2 Chicago

Sorry, but where is the personal responsibility of these girls? It is common knowledge that once a woman starts to menstruate each month, there is a very real possibility that pregnancy can occur without use of preventative measures. Hey, you don't have to be a genius to know that "you play, you pay." It is a shame that the school now has to divert resources that could have been spent on education to spend on a teen parent program. Also, coming soon, a one-time crack house across the street from the school will be turned into a day care for student use. How is that going to solve the problem of teenage pregnancy at the school when you present these girls with a ready-made day care? Shouldn't they be focusing on methods of deterrence?

Teenage pregnancy is an age-old problem and it seems that lost in all this is the fact that personal responsibility plays an integral role. During my teenage years, the last thing I wanted to do was to have a baby. I wanted to get a solid education from high school to college. I also knew that having unprotected sex was dangerous. Yes, I know that societal factors weigh heavily in teenage pregnancies and the breakdown in the family structure in these homes play a great role in the behaviors of some of these teenagers, but that is still not an excuse.

Photo credit: Paul Robeson High School, CBS2