There is this male student at my school who is fifteen years old and has impregnated seven girls at my school, some of them more than once. There appears to be a mentality of the thirteen/fourteen-year-old female mindset that if you get pregnant you will get your crush and he will finally love you and you’ll live happily ever after. We all know what it is like to be that age and yes, girls do really only think about boys, but this getting pregnant thing is taking those daydreams to a whole new level. There is this girl in my school who is in love with super sperm. She found out that a girl she doesn’t like is now pregnant with his child and she is heartbroken and now wants him to get her pregnant because she thinks that he will then fall in love with her and finally be her boyfriend. She is a virgin. This is all so frustrating. I know she feels hopeless because of living in the barrio and doesn’t think she can have a future because of where she was born but this hopelessness is bullshit. I do not tolerate this being used a crutch with my students. I try to empower these girls. Show them that they are THIRTEEN and should be having fun. Not taking care of babies. I tell them that yes, they can be nurses and teachers! Most of the country paid for their own school through student loans. And if they want to go back to the barrio once they gained a SKILL then they can go as an asset to the community. These girls need to stop being a victim of their circumstances and get their heads out of the clouds.
