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'Assembly' hits home with area students
By EUGENE L. TINKLEPAUGH, Staff Writer
Despite some delay, kinks and a few drawn-out rehearsals, the Beaufort County students assembled at Washington High School's auditorium were receptive to the message delivered by UNC-TV's High School Assembly program.
The program, explained Shannon Vickery, executive producer for content of UNC-TV, tapes on location about once a season.
"Our mission is to provide an educational program that looks at topics of concern to high school students across the state," Vickery said.
For this season's "on-location" shoot, the show's producers decided to tackle the sober-but-uncomfortable issue of North Carolina's teen pregnancy rate.
Vickery said producers chose Beaufort County because of its adolescent parenting program.
"Given the fact that Beaufort County has a very successful parenting program, it seemed to be a natural fit," Vickery said.
Beaufort County's teen pregnancy rate is also 15 percent above the state average.
UNC-TV's Eszter Vajda, filling in for the show's regular host, who is on maternity leave, said during the show, that Washington High alone has more than 20 teenage moms.
Vajda called it "an alarming trend."
The episode, titled "Diaries of Teen Mothers," was scheduled to air Thursday at 1 p.m., just hours after taping.
But due to technical difficulties, the episode was pulled from broadcasting. It is scheduled to air next Thursday at 1 p.m.
Students from Washington, Northside and Southside high schools, as well as a group from P.S. Jones Middle School, packed the auditorium to participate in the live forum.
After the show, students said they took from the assembly that they should "be more careful and use protection," related Jennifer Raynolds, a 10th-grade Washington High School student.
She speculated that the main cause of teen pregnancy was peer pressure.
Friend Jennifer Gaytko said teens "want to know what things are like, and parents aren't telling them."
Gaytko, an 11th-grader at Washington High, said the UNC-TV program held her attention.
"I was interested in finding out how hard it is to raise a child while you're still in high school," she said.
Gaytko said her philosophy is, "stay on the safe side and wait 'til you're married."
The high school girls said teens are treated differently after they became pregnant.
"Some people still try to be nice and act like their friend, but mostly they get treated like outcasts or something," Raynolds said.
The guest panel for the program included three teenage parents -- all seniors at Washington High -- and three area educators.
Tanya Squires, an expecting mother, related the stresses of being a pregnant high school student.
Squires said, in addition to being very emotional -- "I cry sometimes for no reason," she told the assembly -- she doesn't have as many friends as she did before becoming pregnant.
Monique Latham is the mother of a 1-year-old baby girl.
In her diary clip, which the audience was able to watch on a small-screen TV during production of the program, Latham said she used birth control, but not as directed.
When asked why, she contended it was mostly out of "laziness."
"I didn't think about the consequences," she added.
Latham was back in class two weeks after having her baby.
Having a child, she said, is "fun, but it's also hard balancing school and supporting a child."
She talked about her tough schedule, which begins at 6 in the morning, and the activities she had to give up in order to take care of her new responsibility.
Steven Bonner, father of a 1-year-old daughter, talked about the realization he faced when hit with parenthood.
"Everyday I wake up I've got to be a man," Bonner said. "I can't be a child anymore; I can't lean on nobody no more."
Bonner related to the assembly the pressures of being a father, a student and an employee.
"I have to budget and save, cut out things I used to buy because the cost (of rearing a child) is so high," Bonner said.
After taping, Bonner said he wanted to get across to his peers that it was "not cool to become a teenage parent."
He told a Daily News reporter fatherhood "snatched away" his childhood.
Bonner has been in the county's adolescent pregnancy program for two years, he said.
The program, he said, teaches teen parents how to become adults, how to become responsible parents.
Darlene Moss, coordinator of the program, was one of the three educators on the panel Thursday.
Moss said the program, which focuses on prevention, also works on keeping pregnant teens and teen parents in school and on a "successful path."
She said the teen pregnancy rate is not only a community issue, it is a statewide problem as well, one that many parents aren't willing to face.
Other guest panelists included Harold Bewer, chairman of the board of the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coalition of North Carolina and a retired superintendent who battled high teen pregnancy rates in Montgomery County; and Terri Mitchell, a professor in the department of health education at East Carolina University.
Mitchell teaches the abstinence-until-marriage curriculum and trains teachers across the state.
Members of the audience were allowed to ask pre-approved questions during the taping of the program.
One student asked if the teen parents had used birth control.
Both Squires and Latham said they had, but incorrectly.
Squires said when she became ill, she didn't tell her doctor that she was sexually active and on the birth-control pill.
"The medications he put me on interfered with the birth control," Squires told the assembly.
Mitchell noted that one of the problems educators face is they aren't allowed to tell students how to use contraception.
She added that teen pregnancy isn't the only problem that arises when protection isn't used properly.
According to Mitchell, America has the highest sexually transmitted-disease rate in the industrialized world.
Bonner told the assembly not to "be afraid to sit down and talk to an adult about sex."
He noted that many parents would rather "sugarcoat it or don't want to talk about it. But then," he continued, "the kids want to find out about it on their own."
According to UNC-TV's Web site, "High School Assembly" is a national-award-winning show that is broadcast statewide.
The program covers a wide variety of subjects, the Web site continues, from anorexia and bulimia to First Amendment rights, youth tobacco use, uniforms in the classroom, racism and sexism.
The program, explained Shannon Vickery, executive producer for content of UNC-TV, tapes on location about once a season.
"Our mission is to provide an educational program that looks at topics of concern to high school students across the state," Vickery said.
For this season's "on-location" shoot, the show's producers decided to tackle the sober-but-uncomfortable issue of North Carolina's teen pregnancy rate.
Vickery said producers chose Beaufort County because of its adolescent parenting program.
"Given the fact that Beaufort County has a very successful parenting program, it seemed to be a natural fit," Vickery said.
Beaufort County's teen pregnancy rate is also 15 percent above the state average.
UNC-TV's Eszter Vajda, filling in for the show's regular host, who is on maternity leave, said during the show, that Washington High alone has more than 20 teenage moms.
Vajda called it "an alarming trend."
The episode, titled "Diaries of Teen Mothers," was scheduled to air Thursday at 1 p.m., just hours after taping.
But due to technical difficulties, the episode was pulled from broadcasting. It is scheduled to air next Thursday at 1 p.m.
Students from Washington, Northside and Southside high schools, as well as a group from P.S. Jones Middle School, packed the auditorium to participate in the live forum.
After the show, students said they took from the assembly that they should "be more careful and use protection," related Jennifer Raynolds, a 10th-grade Washington High School student.
She speculated that the main cause of teen pregnancy was peer pressure.
Friend Jennifer Gaytko said teens "want to know what things are like, and parents aren't telling them."
Gaytko, an 11th-grader at Washington High, said the UNC-TV program held her attention.
"I was interested in finding out how hard it is to raise a child while you're still in high school," she said.
Gaytko said her philosophy is, "stay on the safe side and wait 'til you're married."
The high school girls said teens are treated differently after they became pregnant.
"Some people still try to be nice and act like their friend, but mostly they get treated like outcasts or something," Raynolds said.
The guest panel for the program included three teenage parents -- all seniors at Washington High -- and three area educators.
Tanya Squires, an expecting mother, related the stresses of being a pregnant high school student.
Squires said, in addition to being very emotional -- "I cry sometimes for no reason," she told the assembly -- she doesn't have as many friends as she did before becoming pregnant.
Monique Latham is the mother of a 1-year-old baby girl.
In her diary clip, which the audience was able to watch on a small-screen TV during production of the program, Latham said she used birth control, but not as directed.
When asked why, she contended it was mostly out of "laziness."
"I didn't think about the consequences," she added.
Latham was back in class two weeks after having her baby.
Having a child, she said, is "fun, but it's also hard balancing school and supporting a child."
She talked about her tough schedule, which begins at 6 in the morning, and the activities she had to give up in order to take care of her new responsibility.
Steven Bonner, father of a 1-year-old daughter, talked about the realization he faced when hit with parenthood.
"Everyday I wake up I've got to be a man," Bonner said. "I can't be a child anymore; I can't lean on nobody no more."
Bonner related to the assembly the pressures of being a father, a student and an employee.
"I have to budget and save, cut out things I used to buy because the cost (of rearing a child) is so high," Bonner said.
After taping, Bonner said he wanted to get across to his peers that it was "not cool to become a teenage parent."
He told a Daily News reporter fatherhood "snatched away" his childhood.
Bonner has been in the county's adolescent pregnancy program for two years, he said.
The program, he said, teaches teen parents how to become adults, how to become responsible parents.
Darlene Moss, coordinator of the program, was one of the three educators on the panel Thursday.
Moss said the program, which focuses on prevention, also works on keeping pregnant teens and teen parents in school and on a "successful path."
She said the teen pregnancy rate is not only a community issue, it is a statewide problem as well, one that many parents aren't willing to face.
Other guest panelists included Harold Bewer, chairman of the board of the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coalition of North Carolina and a retired superintendent who battled high teen pregnancy rates in Montgomery County; and Terri Mitchell, a professor in the department of health education at East Carolina University.
Mitchell teaches the abstinence-until-marriage curriculum and trains teachers across the state.
Members of the audience were allowed to ask pre-approved questions during the taping of the program.
One student asked if the teen parents had used birth control.
Both Squires and Latham said they had, but incorrectly.
Squires said when she became ill, she didn't tell her doctor that she was sexually active and on the birth-control pill.
"The medications he put me on interfered with the birth control," Squires told the assembly.
Mitchell noted that one of the problems educators face is they aren't allowed to tell students how to use contraception.
She added that teen pregnancy isn't the only problem that arises when protection isn't used properly.
According to Mitchell, America has the highest sexually transmitted-disease rate in the industrialized world.
Bonner told the assembly not to "be afraid to sit down and talk to an adult about sex."
He noted that many parents would rather "sugarcoat it or don't want to talk about it. But then," he continued, "the kids want to find out about it on their own."
According to UNC-TV's Web site, "High School Assembly" is a national-award-winning show that is broadcast statewide.
The program covers a wide variety of subjects, the Web site continues, from anorexia and bulimia to First Amendment rights, youth tobacco use, uniforms in the classroom, racism and sexism.
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