Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Wednesday, August 8, 2012

The War on Women Continues

The latest in the obsession with sniffing out lady parts is going on in Louisiana,  where a public charter school, Delhi Charter School, forces girls to take pregnancy tests,  and kicks out students who test positive or who refuse.

This is from Delhi Charter School handbook:

If an administrator or teacher suspects a student is pregnant, a parent conference will be held. The school reserves the right to require any female student to take a pregnancy test to confirm whether or not the suspected student is in fact pregnant. The school further reserves the right to refer the suspected student to a physician of its choice. If the test indicates that the student is pregnant, the student will not be permitted to attend classes on the campus of Delhi Charter School.

If a student is determined to be pregnant and wishes to continue to attend Delhi Charter School, the student will be required to pursue a course of home study that will be provided by the school… Any student who is suspected of being pregnant and who refuses to submit to a pregnancy test shall be treated as a pregnant student and will be offered home study opportunities. If home study opportunities are not acceptable, the student will be counseled to seek other educational opportunities.

And this from the student handbook:

 "[The school] reserves the right to send girls suspected of being pregnant to a physician of the school's choice. Various other policies in the 216-page manual permit "reasonable corporal punishment of unruly students," defined as "paddling of the student's buttocks," and prohibition of public displays of affection because they "show disdain for good taste."

Delhi Charter School's policy is in direct violation of federal laws and the U.S. Constitution.  The policy violates Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clauses of the U.S. constitution.

“The pregnancy policy violates the rights of every girl at Delhi Charter School,” said Marjorie R. Esman, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana.

“Every girl is at risk of being subject to intrusive medical testing, and possibly forced out of school, for reasons that have nothing to do with her education.”

Title IX explicitly prohibits schools from excluding a female student from class because she is pregnant. 

Kicking a young woman out of school because she's pregnant is hardly a way to prevent teen pregnancy.  The policy tells us more about the people who promulgated this illegal action and their eagerness to punish, ostracize, and shame young women than it does their dedication to education.

According to a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, Louisiana holds the sixth highest teen pregnancy rate in the country, and "lack of education is a big factor," Louisiana State University student Shea Leger told The Daily Reveille.

The ACLU notes that about 70 percent of teenagers who give birth drop out of high school, in part due to actions by schools that force pregnant students out. Data from the National Center for Educational Statistics show that pregnancy is already a leading cause of dropping out of high school -- 30 percent of teenage girls cited pregnancy or parenthood as a reason for leaving before completion.
Overall, high school dropouts cost taxpayers between $320 billion and $350 billion a year in lost wages, taxable income, health, welfare and incarceration costs, among others. Dropouts are also a cost to themselves: of the 3.8 million students that started high school last fall, a quarter won't earn a diploma. Those who don't finish will earn $200,000 less than those who do over their lifetime.

Dropouts are also not eligible for 90 percent of the jobs in our economy, and a student drops out of high school every 26 seconds in the U.S., contributing to a rising unemployment rate.

It is interesting to note how the school completely ignores young men's responsibility in the policy, as though young women are magically impregnated, and therefore, must bear the shame and responsibility all themselves.

It's always been that way, but this new policy in Louisiana's Dehli Charter School: suspecting a young woman is pregnant and forcing a pregnancy test on her, pregnant or not, and if so, sending her  to a physician of ITS choice, sounds like something out of a 19th century Nathaniel Hawthorne-like novel.

Shame and punishment won't stop teen pregnancies.
 
Education and access to birth control will.
te

SOURCE

If the above eport rdoesn't get you to bang your head on your desk in frustration, this report on what Louisiana includes in its voucher schools will.  

One thing is certain, if Louisiana continues to teach the nonsense described in the report I 've linked to, it will lead the country in the highest number of illiterate students graduating from voucher schools.

29 comments:

Silverfiddle said...

It's a private school.

On the video above this post, you're all being played, falling for Obama's latest Romney smear. The timeline is all wrong (she got cancer after Romney official left Bain.) That man's wife had health insurance from her job, but why let facts get in the way of a good smear?

This should be a big red flag for those sitting on the fence (I know it won't change the Hopium Smokers' minds). When a campaign rolls out crap like this, they are running scared.

Shaw Kenawe said...

SF, if your guy isn't interested in accuracy [Obama is going to take voting rights away from Ohio veterans], and you're not aware of being "played" ["Obama said 'you didn't make that' which Romney's ad said Obama meant that business people didn't build their own business, when in fact Obama's following line said they did] you don't need to come here and do pearl clutching about the "accuracy" a political ads.

Let's just agree that in this heated political climate, Mr. Obama is going to punch back harder than being punched at.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Running scared?

Go read FiveThirtyEight.

Ema Nymton said...

.

Right on Shaw Kenawe.

When it comes to politics and the RepublicanT Party, I love the smell of desperation. And of late it is a scent that wafts from every pore of the RepublicanT Party and its cheerleaders (ehm SilverFiddle), a distinct odor that permeates the air, as well as the airwaves.
.
.
(http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2012/08/08/ah-the-smell-of-desperation/)
.
.
"Despite my absolute joy at watching the GOPers trip all over themselves trying to put lipstick on what is clearly an obnoxious, arrogant, ill-informed pig, I can’t help but feel a bit sorry for their plight. It’s not easy to stand behind a serial liar and pretend he’s honest, especially when those lies are so easily exposed with a quick Google search on anyone’s home computer. It’s not easy to pretend you’re enthusiastic about a candidate who consistently insults the citizenry, along with foreign dignitaries.

...

So what the RepublicanTs are left with is an inarticulate, nonsense-spewing empty suit, a candidate who can’t open his mouth without confirming his own idiocy, a job-outsourcing draft-dodger whose allegiance to his country’s financial well-being is tucked away in tax-free offshore bank accounts, a man who doesn’t have the common sense to avoid bragging about how he enjoyed firing people from their jobs in a time of high unemployment, a car elevator-owning rich man’s son whose only source of income has been the inheritance of wealth and the misery of hard-working Americans – and little in the way of anything that can remove the stink of all of the above."
.
.
_______________________

Electoral College:

Obama = 319 Needed to win = 270 Romney = 191

http://core.talkingpointsmemo.com/election/scoreboard

Please Pick Paul Ryan for VP.

Ema Nymton
~ @ : o ?
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Paul said...

Amazing how Republiscums defend abuse, "It's a private school."
That attitude fostered abuse for centuries and protected abusers. The Catholic Church is a good example, but not the only one.
I'm sure some nut job will quote the Bible, "spare the rod, spoil the child."
They believe they have a right to abuse anyone according to the dictates of their God.
Republiscums want all schools to be private, to give a free hand to abuse children, because their God tells them so.

Jerry Critter said...

Sounds like a good reason to go to another school...just like whenever I hear Romney speak, it gives me another reason to vote for the other guy.

Ema Nymton said...

.

"Amazing how Republiscums defend abuse, "It's a private school.""

And the Boys Scouts are a private organization. ...

Ema Nymton
~@:o?
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Shaw Kenawe said...

It's NOT a private school.

SF needs to re-read the post.

From Louisiana's Department of Education website:

"Charter schools are publicly funded, independently-operated public schools and do not charge tuition or fees. Charter schools are open to all students who wish to attend and cannot discriminate when making enrollment decisions. While charter schools are not forced to enroll students based on an attendance zone, the student population of a charter school must reflect the at-risk population in the district where the school is located."

Shaw Kenawe said...

And yes, SF apparently thinks it's a good idea to shame and punish young woman who get pregnant, so long as it's a "private school" doing it.

And not a word about the the male attached to the penis that impregnated her.

Jerry Critter said...

Republican World -- The male is a stud and the female is a slut.

I say throw the male out of school and give the female help.

Jerry Critter said...

And once again, SF is proven wrong!

Anonymous said...

silverfizzle claims the vid on shaw's blog isn't fair because romney had left bain...sorry...it's a fair ad...the repubs went after obama on guilt by association on the rev. wright issue...obama didn't say any of the things wright said...but the repubs said he's guilty by being in that church...romney started bain...his whole campaign is based on bain and its 'success'...he owns what bain did to that family...

Silverfiddle said...

QJerry: Republican World -- The male is a stud and the female is a slut.

Unfortunately, that is the American world. Serial empregnators run around scott free while their victims get stuck with the kids, the welfare checks and the section 8 housing.

When will our government start demanding blood tests to establish paternity and force these man-boys to take responsibility?

And nowhere was I wrong in my statement, regardless of the howling chorus.

Steve's was a typical funny comment. Pedophilia is against the law, no matter where it happens. Private businesses and schools have a right to set standards, so it is a completely different issue.

It is a private school, and blaming Romney for that woman's death is not only desperate, it is factually incorrect.

Silverfiddle said...

Anonymouse: I didn't say it wasn't fair, I said it was a smear, factually incorrect.

But I understand, you've got to play games with words and slippery with the facts if you want to keep The Worst President Since Jimmy Carter on the throne...

Shaw Kenawe said...

SF, if Mr. Obama is as bad as you claim he is, why isn't the GOP challenger WAAAAy ahead? He isn't, and in the big electoral college states [except Texas], Obama is ahead. And it's a toss-up in Colorado, your state.

You write that line over and over and over as if by repeating it, the electorate will believe it.

It's magical thinking.

Leslie Parsley said...

"It is interesting to note how the school completely ignores young men's responsibility in the policy, as though young women are magically impregnated, and therefore, must bear the shame and responsibility all themselves."

Well, gee, when I got pregnant both times with my Republican husband, you would have sworn I did it by finger acupuncture!

Shaw Kenawe said...

Leslie,

It's the Biblical way of dealing with women's sexuality--shame and punish them. Every religion I know of does it.

Were men ever shamed and punished for getting unmarried women pregnant?

Paul said...

" Private businesses and schools have a right to set standards, so it is a completely different issue."

The standard your fighting for, is to kick a student out of school if she is pregnant.
It's not a different issue, it's abuse.
Pedophilia is not the only abuse going on in schools private, or public, which is why I never mentioned the word.
The secular court tossed it out, knowing the abuse intended and rightly ignoring the ridiculous religious based idea of Dark Age discipline.

Les Carpenter said...

@ Shaw who said... "It's the Biblical way of dealing with women's sexuality--shame and punish them. Every religion I know of does it.

Were men ever shamed and punished for getting unmarried women pregnant?"

An observation and and question well stated. On this one we are, as you have acknowledged several times, in rare agreement.

Shaw Kenawe said...

It's not a private school.

Les Carpenter said...

??????? To whom was your last comment directed.

If it was me perhaps you misunderstood my comment.

Shaw Kenawe said...

It was directed at SF, who keeps insisting the school in question is private.

Republican Racism said...

There's that RN ego again
Thinks everyone is always talking about HIM

Les Carpenter said...

There's that RR again, stinking up the house as usual.

Les Carpenter said...

Hey RR, you can keep depositing your chicken s**t droppings and lies at RN USA if you like. However they will not be published.

I do find myself LMFAO at how much of a waste of human flesh you are though.

Jerry Critter said...

You must be pushing some buttons, RN, to evoke such rath. Good job!

Anonymous said...

I'm just curious what would happen if a girl went to school administrators, and said "I admit that I was pregnant, but I had an abortion, so you can't keep me out of school, because I'm no longer pregnant." I'm guessing they would still kick her out for being a slut, with no morals.

Anonymous said...

The purpose of that Bain ad was to get through to the thick skulls of the teapublicans that when Romney closed down businesses people lost their health care. And Romney didn't give that a second thought. And when people lose their health care....they die. No one accused Romney of causing that woman's death. But this is the results that effect real people.

Shaw Kenawe said...

"...when people lose their health care....they die. No one accused Romney of causing that woman's death. But this is the results that effect real people."

Bingo!