During the past school year 47 teen pregnancies occurred among Walker County school system students, with the youngest mother being age 13.

That’s according to Tricia Jackson, a social worker with the system..

Jackson spoke Tuesday to a group gathered at the Walker County Civic Center in Rock Spring to discuss a topic that is often taboo --- teen pregnancy.

“The Walker County teen pregnancy rate had decreased for a number of years, until about 2005. It started to go back up,” Jackson said.

“Two (of the 47 pregnancies) were to mothers that were age 13, seven were to mothers that were 14, six were to mothers that were 15, and eight were to mothers that were 16,” she said. That means 23 of the 47 teens who had babies were under age 17.

“Ten pregnancies occurred to mothers who were 17, four to mothers who were 18, and one to a mother who was 19,” she said.

Jackson said the number of teen pregnancies in the system during the past school year may have been even greater, but these were the ones her office was able to track.

“Two (mothers) are still in middle school, nine are still in high school, eight graduated high school, two are home-schooled, eight dropped out of school, with three being in GED programs.”

Jackson said statistics show that teen births increase the likelihood of the mother dropping out school and raising the child in poverty.

Three of the cited births were the second children born to a teen mother, she said.

“What is really scary is that one of the school counselors came to me yesterday and said we already have a teen pregnancy this year.”

Cost is high; the trend is national

Jackson said that the cost to the county was about $2.8 million “with public health, child welfare services, decreased earnings in spending and the dropout rate.”

School officials have pointed to teen pregnancies as contributing to the county’s dropout rate among high school students.

Andrea Sharpe, training director of Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, talked about the efforts of Walker County leaders in forming a teen pregnancy task force.

Sharpe said the increase of teen pregnancy in Walker follows a trend nationwide of teen births steadily climbing during the past several years.

“Nationally, last year was the largest single-year increase in teen birth rates since 1991, with 441,000 births to women under the age of 20,” Sharpe said.

Jackson said that along with the increase in teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are on the rise among girls ages of 14-19.

“It is estimated that as many as 25 percent of all teenage girls from 14 to 19 have an STD,” Jackson said. “If you have an average classroom of 28 kids, with 12 being girls, three in that classroom could have an STD. That is huge.”

Abstinence is fine, but education is vital

Members of the teen pregnancy task force met with their partners from Northwest Georgia Public Health and Family Connection at the Civic Center to raise awareness of the problem and to brainstorm ideas to combat it.

Susan Wells, spokesman for the task force, said, “We want you to hear the story of teen pregnancy in Walker County. It doesn’t just impact those teens or just the school system, although it does affect their dropout rate. It doesn’t just impact the county agencies working with these teens, but it affects the entire community. All of us here in Walker County who want our children to grow up healthy, well-educated, and successful are concerned about this sudden rise in teen pregnancies. We want you to have a good understanding of what’s going on in our community and we also want you to be aware of what works in teen pregnancy prevention.”

Sharpe said that in her agency’s research teaching abstinence is not enough.

“There is nothing wrong with wanting abstinence for our kids,” Sharpe said. “But we must also incorporate this with other information that teaches a greater audience the facts about teen pregnancy.”

Sharpe encouraged church leaders at the meeting to embrace their partners working down the street who might be teaching the value of contraceptives to teens.

“This must be a partnering of the community to stop this rising problem,” Sharpe said.

The task force has been meeting in Walker County since January to study the problem and to begin providing solutions.

According to Wells, Tuesday’s meeting was the first of many planned interventions the task force will provide the county to help stop the growth in teen pregnancy rates.

Wells thanked County Commissioner Bebe Heiskell for sponsoring this initial meeting, saying of Heiskell, “We feel so fortunate in Walker County to have a commissioner that genuinely cares about the families and children in our community.”