children out of school in america - University of Tennessee Digital ...

Maxine, 14
Maxine Dolan is 14 and has an eight-month-old
son. While she wants to make certain that the child
receives love and attention, she also wants to return
to the school that suspended her when they learned
she was pregnant and that remains unwilling to let
her return on the grounds that she now represents a
dangerous influence to other girls.
"What do they think I'm going to do in that school
-teach everybody to make babies? They think all
us girls don't want anything but jllst to get pregnant.
They think that's all we're doing, making babies."
In fact, Maxine knows her friends are privately relieved
that it wasn't one of them. She understands
that no one 14 years old really wants a baby. "I can
tell that," she says, "just from looking at their eyes.
They wouldn't change places with me for all the
money in the world. I'm really a good influence-look
at old Dolan, that's how you'll end up if you
ain't careful."
When Maxine learned that she was pregnant, her
grandmother suggested that the family consult the
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school. "Perhaps they have ideas on what to do.
Maxine couldn't be the first child to have this happen."
A guidance counselor agreed to meet with
Maxine, her mother and her grandmother, but the
interview was short and the advice simple: whatever
the girl did, it had to be done outside of school. Nobody
pregnant could attend class. After the baby
was born or an abortion was performed, they could
meet again and decide what to do.
"But why can't this girl go to school like she's
supposed to until the last days?" her grandmother
wanted to know. "She just can't," was the reply.
"That's the policy and it can't be changed. I'm afraid
that any right she had has just gone out the window.
You all should have thought about this before."
That was the last time any of the three women
entered· the school. They never spoke with the assistant
principal, because they were advised that the
school administration would be even less open to discussion
than the guidance counselor. Maxine Dolan
remains out of school. The time is just about right to
make an application for re-entrance, but Maxine
wonders whether she can face the humiliation that so
many people at the school might cause her to feel.
"I'm his mama and there's nothing I'd rather be,
but I'm still sorry that they made me leave the school,
even if I did make a mistake. My baby would be
better off if they let me go back, but all they can
think about is that there ain't no mama going to
school. "8
Melvin, 18; Jim, 16; Danny, 13; Melanie, 7
When their father became disabled, Melvin and
Jim had to drop out of school in Floyd County, Kentucky
to help support the family. But when Mr.
Johnson started to receive state aid, they tried to return
to school but were not admitted because school
8 Maxine is not alone. As Chapter 3 of this report notes,
pregnant girls and school-age mothers face many altitudinal
and policy barriers to attendance. "One of every ten
school-age girls is a mother ... about 35,000 are less than
16 years old. . . . Pregnancy is the major known cause of
school dropouts among girls in the United States." Address
by Cyril B. Busbee, State Superintendent of Schools, to the
South Carolina State Conference on School-Age Parents,
Columbia, South Carolina, November 20, 1973. See also
"Magnitude and Severity of Early Childbearing," Marion
Howard and Morris Cohen (Washington, D.C.: Consortium
on Early Childbearing and Childrearing), February 18,
1972.