FEATURES
March 31, 2009
8
Pressures of teen pregnancy
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nicely and were helping with everything we could have possibly needed. One worker was very interested in my pregnancy and made conversation with me about it. She asked many questions, such as when I was due, the gender of my child and other things about it. The people in Gymboree were the only people during our trip that treated us normally. After getting a bite to eat, recording and discussing the reactions of the people in the mall, we decided to end our trip and go home. It was a relief to get to the car and take off my fake stomach. After only two hours of being pregnant, I was tired of the mockery, strange looks and rude comments I had received during my time there On March 4, I went into seventh period lunch looking pregnant. Once kids started noticing they were not shy to stare. It was so awkward walking around feeling people’s judgmental looks. Even people that I have class with or see around school frequently watched me walk around with an unending stare. Before I went into the lunch room I figured that I wouldn’t have any problem staying the whole period, but after everyone’s initial reaction I was ready to leave as quickly as possible. I walked through the cafeteria during fifth period as if I was pregnant. Although I was at school with peers, I still received the same type of attention that I had the night before at the mall. People stared as soon as I walked through the doors. People across the room stood up to see who I was and what was happening. I got a lot of attention, but in a bad and unwanted way. After having walked around the cafeteria for only one period, I received comments about it for the rest of the day. People who hadn’t even seen me asked where my belly went and what was going on with “the whole pregnancy thing.” Going into this “social experiment” I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t think that I would get much of a reaction from many people and that my trip to the mall would be mostly uneventful. People certainly proved me wrong. After barely an hour of walking around at the mall all I wanted to do was go home, curl up on the couch and stay as far away from people as possible. I could not believe how unconcerned people could be about my feelings. One thing that I was appreciative for was having two friends with me. There is no way that I could have done it alone. I felt like everyone in the mall was against me, so having two people there who I knew were on my side helped slightly. After this trip I have a whole new outlook on teenagers who are pregnant. They do not deserve the ridicule and things that they obviously receive on a daily basis. From experience I can now say that it is not a comfortable situation to be put into and strangers who gawk make it so much worse. Everywhere they go, the pregnant girls are looked at differently and I feel bad for them. It’s not fair to them to be scoffed at. Other people do not know what the girls are going through and what is happening with them. People have no right to judge about something they know nothing about. Research for this article taught me a lot. Everyone really needs to think before they stop and stare at someone or make a stupid comment. I’m not here to condone teen pregnancy, but who are we to judge the circumstances that a person is under? I’m in no way perfect in this department, but after this experience I will definitely be more conscious to try not to judge others. ~ Abbey Strick & Chelsea Ulmer
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In 2006, 860 babies were born to girls residing in Lucas County ages 10 - 19 or 26.6 per 1,000. This is the highest rate statewide, according to The Toledo Blade. But no one ever thinks about the point of view of the pregnant girl. Everyone always thinks about her bad decisions. My fellow staff writer Chelsea Ulmer (her point of view is in italics) and I decided to investigate the other side of the story. The side of the pregnant teen. Staring, pointing, laughing, strange looks and rude comments. Exactly what I received when walking around the mall one night while dressed up as a pregnant teenager. I had quite the experience and it was much more interesting and full of surprises than I had expected. Have you ever gone somewhere and felt like everyone was staring at you? That’s how it felt when I went to the mall appearing to be pregnant. Two of my friends, junior Cody Brant and sophomore Alexa Kalanquin, and I went on a trip to the mall with a pillow under my sweatshirt to appear pregnant. Although I took a friend with me, Southview junior Patrick Harrington, I was somewhat nervous. I was anxious about the awkward situations I was about to be put into. And boy was I right. As soon as I stepped out of the car, there were people staring and gawking until the moment that we left. Many people, it seems, expected that he was the father of my baby and that we were shopping together for our child. One of his friends who happened to see us even texted Patrick to find out more about the situation. He asked if Patrick had a girlfriend who was pregnant, and if he was the father of a soon to be baby. I wonder what was really going through that person’s head when he first saw us, because he was obviously taken aback. “I was fine with people expecting that I was the baby’s father,” said Harrington, “I would assume the same thing, but I would not act rude like most of the people we encountered.” As I was preparing for our adventure I started to feel very anxious. I was worried about what people would think of me and how they would react to a young pregnant girl. A major part of me believed that I was overreacting and was even worried that I would return home with nothing to report about. I believed that people would just ignore me or not really care. I was in for a big surprise. On my way out the door I had major trouble putting my shoes on; having such a big belly proved to make everyday tasks very difficult. I ended up having to sit down to put my shoes on and then ask my mom to help me up. We went into many stores, shopping and looking at normal things. It would not have been any different from a normal day, except that my stomach had grown out five inches or so. It was attracting so much extra attention than a normal trip to the mall. People tried to be discreet about the fact that they were staring at me, but they did not realize that I could easily tell what they were doing. Groups of people would whisper and point at me as I walked past. Did they think I would not notice? I definitely noticed and it was unbelievably uncomfortable. When someone already stands out, they do not need people pointing and laughing from across the mall adding more unwanted attention. “I could not believe the rude looks and comments that we received in the mall,” said Harrington, “I feel bad for anyone who has to go through that.” When we arrived at the mall I was pretty nervous to get out of the car. Being with two of my friends helped a lot, but it was still nerve-wracking. At first nothing really happened and I began to wonder if anyone would react at all. After wandering around for a little bit I began to notice people staring at me. Upon entering Payless a group of kids, probably just a few years older than myself, noticed me. One girl pointed and then all of them stared at me even after I went into the store. This was my first taste of how cruel and obvious people can be. After walking around most of the mall I got a lot of stares, doubletakes, and “up-downs”. The worst was the moms shopping together who would stop and stare for a minute and then whisper to each other all the while giving me a disappointed look. “The dirty looks were quite irksome,” said Kalanquin. “I was really glad that I wasn’t the one appearing to be pregnant.” We went into Gymboree, the baby-clothing store, part way through our experiment. We were going to look around and see some reactions of people in the store. Other shoppers did not pay much attention to us. Although they were older than I, they knew what I was going through and did not treat me strangely. The workers were also very generous to us, both of them believed I was truly pregnant and talked to me as if I was. They chatted with us very
Are economy, tech harming newspapers? Co-Editor in Chief “It’s a sign of the apocalypse,” said government teacher Mr. Perry Lefevre as he picked up a copy of The Toledo Blade, ‘The Student Prints is now larger than The Blade.” The newspaper. Once seen as an equivalent to the Blackberry, newspapers have paid a hard price recently with today's economic crisis and newer technological advances. The Internet is threatening the status of newspapers and other printed publications across the country. The recent economic crisis has caused The Toledo Blade to decrease in size by one inch, according to WTOL.com. Several other publications, such as Rolling Stone have changed formats in order to appeal to more readers during the economic meltdown. The Detroit News and The Detroit Free Press, will now only deliver papers three days a week beginning in March, according to The New York Times. The media group owner of the newspapers believes that several costs will be cut, along with nine percent of their 2,100 jobs. Along with the fall of The Detroit News and Free Press come the apparently diminishing Los Angelos Times and Chicago Tribune, recently filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Some newspapers like Colorado’s old-
est, The Rocky Mountain Times and The Ann Arbor News have been unable to withstand the double whammy of the online press and economy and will soon stop printing altogether. Is the future of printed publications in danger? Although it seems so, newspapers are a source of information that predate almost any other news source and have truly stood the test of time. After visiting The Daily Telegram in Adrian, Michigan where The Student Prints is printed, the future of journalism became obvious. I saw the monstrous machine that churned out thousands of newspapers daily and I could smell the heavy scent of ink floating around the room. Finally, I saw employees of The Telegram printing the papers, working hard, believing that what they do truly makes a difference. At that very moment, when I visited The Telegram, I saw the future of journalism, and it looked exactly as it does today. Although Blackberries and iPhones are said to have revolutionized media, they really have not changed much from the original newspaper. A paper is touchable and legible on an iPhone or in print. But the readers’ enjoyment and interest in the paper between the two journalistic mediums is extremely un-
equal. When I read a printed-paper, I can feel the ink as my hands run over the front page, and am presently surprised as to what might be on the next page. Where as on an iPhone or Blackberry, I find less interest and surprise in its flat, plexiglass screen. The printed-paper will never fall to the grips of the technological and Internet based
monsters of today's world, no matter what economic crises occur. We may lose a few along the way, but in the end the strongest will be left printing. So to those who believe that a Blackberry is the singular device of the future, remember that it is only a sidekick to the media and information superstar that is the newspaper.