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All those young ladies are moms or moms-to-be at Paul Robeson High School. It's not a school for young mothers, it's a neighborhood school. And all of the pregnancies have happened, despite prevention talk.

If you want to know why, the people closest to the situation say there's 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.

Not on Morrow's turf. "We're not looking at them like 'Ooh you made a mistake,'" he said. "We're looking at how we can get them to the next phase, how can we still get them thinking about graduation?"

So there's help in a teen parent program. And coming soon, right across from Robeson, developers are turning a one-time crack house into a day care for student use. "We have to provide some type of environment for them and some form of support for them," Van Vincent, CEO of VLV Development, said.

It's all made an impression.

"Just cause you have a baby, that doesn't mean your life is over," one student said.

One thing they might not know about their principal: His mom had him when she was 15. That's why accepting the problem -- and working through it -- is so important to him. 

Comments (5)

Hppycmpr35: ... The father of the children had no comment, he was on a date. 1 October 17, 2009 icecop: ... i so disgusted by this i don't even know what to say. 2 October 17, 2009 jgreg: ... AHHHHH Chicago. Since the principal was born when his mom was 15, and in high school I assume, that's ok...at least there's a crack house for them to use as day care. F'ing stupid!!! 3 October 17, 2009 88pdx: Probably by the same future NBA, NFL recruits... a player but not a hockey player... It's not a Crack House, it's a Crack Home! Was it Eddie Murphy or Richard Pryor who explained "how to make a Black Man disappear? Babies! Nothing makes a Black Man disappear faster than a baby!" 4 October 18, 2009 det from no where....: the mo babies youse have the mos money youse can git from the welfare office... 5 October 19, 2009

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