Macon-Bibb exploring new ways to curb teen pregnancy

Melinda Robinson-Moffett noticed the teens’ expressions change drastically as she shared her story.

The teens were all smiles when talking about their favorite pastimes, but morphed into somber faces considering how their fun would be curtailed if they were raising babies.

Robinson-Moffett imagined the Mentors Project students thinking, “That is not the life I want,” when she recently counseled them on the pitfalls of teen pregnancy.

It was not the life she chose, either, but the current director of Career Services at Middle Georgia State University got pregnant in her senior year of high school.

Wobbling across the stage to get her diploma in 1995 is a memory she carries with her.

“What does it do to your self-esteem when you realize ‘I’m different,’ ” Robinson-Moffett asked as she reflected on her personal challenges.

As soon as she started showing, she was kicked out of Youth Leadership Bibb County and was dropped from college in her freshman year for having too many absences caring for her newborn.

“I remember what it felt like to be looked down on,” she said.

Robinson-Moffett persevered, enrolled in another college and now has her Ph.D.

She is an exception, while many other teen mothers drop out of school.

Macon-Bibb County leaders realize the repercussions of teen pregnancy reverberate through the whole community.

“They can wind up living in poverty for the rest of their life. They can be 18 with three babies,” said June O’Neal, director of the Mentors Project. “It’s hard to dig out of that kind of responsibility and stay in school.”

O’Neal invited dozens of young people to seminars this summer as the Bibb public schools prepare to launch a new sex education curriculum and partner with the Macon-Bibb County Health Department on a new Teen Health Center near Central High School.

Reducing the teen pregnancy rate is a health department priority.

“It has very exacerbating consequences for our community — negative ones — and we simply have got to do something to reverse this because we have to give young people the best shot in life,” Nancy White, Macon-Bibb’s health administrator, said.

Bibb County’s teen pregnancy rate of 45.2 per 1,000 girls of the same age group is higher than the state average of 30.3 and national rate of 26.5.

“About 42 percent of teens nationally are sexually active, and their contraceptive methods of choice tend to have a high failure rate,” White said.

Under Georgia law, teens can pick up free contraceptives at the health department, but many of them are too embarrassed to do so, or they fear they will see someone they know in the waiting room.

Long Acting Reversible implants also are available and can last three to 10 years.

“We’re doing what we’ve always done, we’re just doing it differently,” White said.

The Emery Highway facility has a new entrance for teens and a separate waiting room, but White believes the new Teen Health Center at the corner of Cherokee and Pio Nono avenues will draw more young people.

The former doctor’s office will feature a colorful, stylish waiting room, two examination rooms and a lab, made possible by $80,000 from the Macon-Bibb County Commission.

A health educator and nurses will be able to schedule appointments at the start of the school year as part of the new collaborative effort.

TOOK A CUE FROM ATHENS

Through White’s work on the Truancy Task Force, she met Jamie Cassady, assistant school superintendent for student affairs in Bibb County.

They traveled to Athens-Clarke County last year where pregnancy rates fell 47 percent between 2011 and 2014.

About 20 years ago, that community started focusing on reducing teen pregnancy and in the past decade has refined its Teen Health Centers near the two major high schools.

“I feel like we’ve done a lot,” said Lou Kudon, program manager for the Athens-Clarke County Health Department. “We’ve touched a lot of teens and we’re educating them and using it to change policy.”

Athens-Clarke County public schools teach a broader sex education course and make sure students know how to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Tackling teen pregnancy fits with Bibb County school Superintendent Curtis Jones’ effort to reduce truancy, Cassady said.

“Any time moms become pregnant or even when they have the kid, they also miss a lot of days due to lack of babysitting services that they have. They just don’t have the support due to the high poverty as well,” Cassady said.

He is hoping the new health educator will be able to visit public schools and get to know the teens, as is the case in Athens.

“That’s where she kind of builds her relationship with the students because it’s all about trust a lot of times when it comes to the teenagers and who they trust as far as adults in their lives,” Cassady said.

This fall, Bibb County also is implementing a new FLASH sex ed curriculum, which stands for Family Life and Sexual Health.

“We’d much rather the students get information based on research rather than just talking to their friends,” Cassady said last week while touring the new health center.

The Centers for Disease Control considers reducing teen pregnancy a top priority and a “winnable battle.”

Bibb Superior Court Judge Verda Colvin, who recently achieved national fame after her frank talk with teen violators turned into a viral video, joined in the fight by talking to the Mentors Project students last month.

“Having a baby does not mean marriage,” she told the group of nearly 50 young people who had gathered at the Lake Wildwood clubhouse. “The reality of it is, no young man wants to have a baby.”

When she asked the guys who wanted to have a baby in the next year, no one raised his hand.

She encouraged the teens to abstain from sex or protect against pregnancy.

“Nobody wants what everybody else can get,” Colvin told the teens. “So if you want to be special, just keep handling yourself like you’re special. If you give it away, there will always be somebody to take it.”

Putting off sexual activity until later in life has its rewards, she said.

“At the end of the day, you will be the one that people want as you get older,” Colvin said. “You might miss out on some things now because you might not be the one that they’re always calling, but that’s not the girl you want to be. Do we understand each other? So, if you remember that, we don’t even have to worry about pregnancy, do we?”

This story was originally published July 6, 2016 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Macon-Bibb exploring new ways to curb teen pregnancy."