Program Uses Teen Parents To Urge Students To Avoid Pregnancy
Jesara Lopez describes to a classroom of freshmen the delivery of her son, not sparing any details. The 22-year-old tells the kids in a matter-of-fact tone about the pain that came from the birth and recovery four years ago, not minding the murmurs and shuffles from the students shifting uncomfortably in their chairs.
Lopez is a part of No Kidding. The program, funded with local and federal grants through the El Paso Child Crisis Center, reaches out to middle and high school students and urges them to avoid teenage pregnancy by using the stories of actual teen parents. This week they took their presentation to El Dorado High School’s Freshman Center.
“We want them to delay parenting until they’re done with school, they finish college. Until they’re more of a mature age,” said Eileen Huereque, the program coordinator through the Child Crisis Center. “And at THAT time decide to have a baby.”
El Paso leads the state in teen births, and three in 10 girls get pregnant at least once by the age of 18 in Texas. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that Texas has a higher proportion of high school students who have had sexual intercourse than the national average.
Fellow teen parent Mathew Mylar, 18, helps Lopez create a list of things necessary to raise a child as the students call out ideas. The high schoolers list money, a car, a house and other things. Lopez looks over the list and tells the class, “You know what I would really want of all the things on this list? To be married. Raising my son has been hard since I have to be with him all day long.”
Huereque said the serious message delivered in a casual dialogue from people who are living the experience is mainly what the program is about. The program also helps teen parents get back on their feet and finish their education.
Mylar has a 1-year-old child. But through the No Kidding program he was able to go back to school and graduate from the Paso Del Norte Academy with a diploma. Lopez also has a diploma. Both are working on obtaining a higher education through El Paso Community College with the help of No Kidding.
Mylar told ABC-7, along with stressing the importance of finishing school, he tries to urge the teens to find a career they enjoy before having children, not just a job that pays the bills.
“We don’t have that, and we’re trying for it. We’re striving for it,” the teen father said. “It’s hard that we have a kid at a young age and we’re trying to get our career at the same time, and working. It’s hard, and we don’t want these kids to be in our position.”
For more information on No Kidding, call Eileen Huereque at 562-7955.
