by Joseph Zavarella

Created on: June 26, 2008   Last Updated: July 22, 2008

If anyone is guilty of a crime I would have to say the male partner in each case has to share heavily in the blame. However, given the laws in place to do something about that (especially if the males are adults) all that is necessary is for the girls to identify them and justice will probably prevail. The girls may not wish to identify their partners so the question may remain moot. In any case all the girls are under eighteen so the consentual defense will not be very helpful.

In my view the school officials, teachers, parents, relatives and the peers of those 17 girls should also share in whatever blame is to be assessed. However, in the final analysis it is the teens who are to carry the most blame. Whatever the reason, each girl and her male partner are the ones who actually carried out the act resulting in a pregnancy. He engaged in sex without the appropriate protection and she allowed that to happen. She has become pregnant and will eventually (I assume) give birth to a child she will probably have no way of actually caring for on her own. The male partner engaged in the act without giving any consideration to the possibility of a baby resulting from their moment of intense passion.

Forgetting the whole question of morality what needs to be focused on is the sheer ignorance which goes beyond naivete and more closely resembles idiocy, or plain stupidity, on the part of the girls and their partners. This aspect falls within the purview of the educational system surrounding them. Hence, because of that I say the school authorities and the teachers are the ones who are to be blamed for this enormous shortfall in the education of those girls and boys. Whether or not curriculum can actually provide the necessary learning that takes place after the animal act of conception is successfully achieved is doubtful. However, the ones giving birth have to be taught exactly what their responsibility is prior to conceiving. Sex education seems to be falling short in that regard and placing most of the emphasis on the act of producing the child rather than on the consequent responsibility for rearing the child.

Even after all these things are considered I must blame the school authorities for not providing the kind of education needed for girls and boys to make informed decisions about engaging in acts that can produce a life changing event for both of them; the girl's pregnancy and the birth of their child. The so-called basic skills approach should be expanded to include the understandings needed to function beyond that of the lower species of animals. We test the kids to see if they have learned to read, write and do arithmetic at very early ages, but the only test we see for their performance regarding right and wrong can be seen in the pregnancies of these 17 girls. Yes, I know there are probably many cases to be cited where kids are actually doing the right things, but in this case it is clear that the schools don't really know how to deal with the concept of sex in this new age.

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