North Campus helps teen mothers get high school diplomas

By Bethany Crane

April 28, 2008 | Just across the street from Logan High School is North Campus, a place where young women in high school who become pregnant have a place to study and take care of their babies.

North and South Campus were created for alternate ways to accommodate students with special circumstances. South Campus is for students that weren't able to function for whatever reason in a normal high school environment. North Campus was made for young women who when dealing with the effects of pregnancy can still finish their high school degree for whichever grade level they are in.

"Once they've had their babies they're able to be with their babies," said Debra Meppen, school coordinator for North Campus.

The essential element in this system is that the girls have a chance to parent so they can take on the responsibilities themselves. It is a place that creates responsibility and ways to cope with all that comes with babies.

At North Campus there are typically 30 girls in a school year, from all over the county. In an interview with three of the girls that attend North Campus they discussed how they still went to classes at Logan High School or their respective school to take classes in a regular setting. They are required to in order to complete their degree. All of them expressed an interest in furthering their education, two of them aspiring to be counselors for troubled teens, and another wanting to be a surgeon since a young age.

To protect their identity their names have been changed. All three were 18 and two of them were married. They are planning on graduating this year having been helped along by North Campus. When asked about how they came to be in the situations they were in, they all had a different story with, of course, one common element.

Jill, while holding her 3-month-old baby, told me about her little girl and her 19 year old husband. They were unmarried when she became pregnant but were married before the baby was born. I asked if there was ever a consideration for giving the baby up. Her response was it seems impossible to give your baby up "when you first feel your baby move."

She said the pregnancy wasn't planned, but they loved each other and wanted to make their new family work. But she said that she understood that if you were alone that it would be much harder and can see the possibility of giving the baby up.

"You can't ever be really prepared to have a baby." said Jill.

Melanie, however, was different story. She and her boyfriend were trying to have a baby together for six months. Her parents lost a child eight months into the pregnancy. "Maybe the baby will bring us back to life." Her parents took the loss badly and now they love their daughter's 7-month-old baby girl.

She and her boyfriend were married before the baby was born and live with her parents until they move out next year. Due to an injury her husband received he is unable to work until he recovers, so they must wait to move.

The more I talked to Meppen and others I found that planning a pregnancy was not as uncommon as I thought.

Stephanie has not yet had her baby, but is seven months into her pregnancy. She isn't yet married to the baby's father but has tentative plans for next year. When I asked how the future looked to her and how she felt, she said, "More scared than anything." Her boyfriend is 23 and from Logan, and she's concerned about keeping the family together and making it work.

I asked if there was any advice they would give to girls in their position of life and who were thinking of being sexually active. The consensus among the three was that it was best to wait. Jill said "You never know what's going to work out."

These girls came from different circumstances and ethnicities, showing that it is not necessarily your environment that creates that situation. They all said their parents have been loving and supportive during this period in their lives.

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