Cash: Teen Pregnancy More than Numbers

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Mathematicians will swear that numbers never lie. But, when it comes to teenage pregnancies in Memphis, especially the reported 90 girls at Frayser High School alone, Memphis City Schools Superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash asserts the numbers by themselves tell a fear-based but incomplete story.

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“That just continues to pour gas on fear-factor, and it's not fair to the schools that work so hard and it's not fair to the young people. And it's because it's not accurate,” Dr. Cash said.

Cash's rebuttal of media reports focused on the number of pregnant teens at Frayser came in the midst of an informal summit on "teen pregnancies" and efforts to curb the problem jointly co-sponsored by city and county Mayors, A C Wharton and Mark Luttrell. Backed by city school administrators, board members and representatives of various organizations promoting teen pregnancy prevention, the Mayors announced a multi-pronged program that hopes to bring a unified approach to a problem that's reached almost epidemic proportions in the Bluff City.

“The combined office of Children and Youth will help us pool, not to takeover those programs, but to help centralize, to help get a focus. So, where we see duplication of effort we can point that out,” Wharton said.

The pledges of aid from various organizations included a 4 million dollar grant given to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital to promote a teen pregnancy initiative. But, Cash found himself peppered with questions about the shocking revelations surrounding Frayser's female student body. However, in downplaying the reported numbers, but by no means the overall teen pregnancies problem, Cash surprisingly revealed the school had already been involved in their own teen pregnancy initiative, asserting the numbers might be skewed because its success had prompted 30 to 35 pregnant girls to seek transfers to Frayser to be enrolled in the voluntary program.

According to former Frayser Principal, Cassandra Turner, “We had parents that say look I have a problem. Can you take my child? I've had schools that said, Turner, we have X, Y, Z can she go and come to your school?

“There are a number of girls, at different stages of either having a child already or two, in a relative smaller number who maybe pregnant at a given time. But, you can't know until you get the self report,” said Cash. “This is about a whole host of reasons that these young ladies deserve our respect, our support, our confidence, and not exploit them.”

“In the Frayser neighborhood you need to meet the same type of standards that you expect everywhere… something that's hopeful and healthy,” added Turner.