Saying No to Pregnant Women in Bars & Yes to Pregnant Teens in Frayser High School

OK, so I know what you're thinking. Yep, you're probably staring at the pic above and wondering; is this woman really in a bar or nightclub pregnant, and chugging down a few beers? Yeah I know, I did the same thing too; and, a part of me wants to think she's drinking that new Kool Aid that comes in a brown bottle. But then gravity hit and pulled me back to reality; I realized that there are women, who though pregnant frequent these spots without a care.

Case in point, check out what happened to Michelle Lee:

A bar in suburban Roselle could end up in a legal battle after forcing a woman to leave because she was eight months pregnant.

Michelle Lee, a 29-year-old Chicago native now living in Denver, came into town for a baby shower last week and her friends talked her into a night out afterward, ABC News reports.

Lee and her friends went to the Coach House in Roselle--about 30 miles northwest of Chicago--where she planned on drinking some water and having a slice of pizza, until a bouncer approached.

"He said to me, 'I have a personal question to ask you, are you pregnant?' I said yes. Then he said, 'I'm going to have to ask you to leave,'" Lee told ABC.


Lee told the Chicago Tribune she was only in the bar for 15 minutes before being asked to leave, and that the bouncer told her Coach House would be liable for her if she got hurt in the bar.

"There are certain things for which you are not able to discriminate against someone, and one is their gender," Ed Yohnka, an American Civil Liberties Union spokesman, told the Tribune. "And only women can have babies. You can't discriminate against a pregnant person."

Officials in Roselle said that Lee should not have been turned away, and Coach House employees refused to comment on the incident. (source)

Now, I'm not a Neanderthal who believes that a woman's place is in the kitchen whilst being barefoot and pregnant. However, I'm a firm believer that a pregnant woman should not be at a bar or nightclub. I know your feminists are gonna say that a woman has the right to go or do whatever she pleases. But I'm sorry, it's just not a safe environment; and, I've seen at least three women get at the club while pregnant. Oh and please believe, it wasn't pretty!

Yep, and one of them went into labor and was rushed to the hospital after being kicked in the stomach when a fight broke out - I later found out that she lost the baby. So, unless nightclubs and bars have changed much from my clubbin' days of the 90s, I will continue to feel this way. But I suppose some of you won't agree with me and that's cool. I mean hell, being pregnant and having a few drinks in the club isn't as bad as breast feeding while driving, right?

The way I see it, this has more to do with safety than it does discrimination. Sure, maybe the bouncer didn't handle it appropriately by asking her to leave. Maybe she should have been informed that should she decide to stay that they're not liable should anything happen to her. Something tells me that even if they did give her that option and something did happen, everyone would then be looking at her and she'd feel so dumb right now. I'm all for women's rights, feminism, and all, but like WuTang, RiPPa is for the children. And, there's a reason "little people" aren't allowed on certain Carnival rides, folks.

Lastly, I wanna talk about something many of you have been emailing and tweeting me about. I wanna talk about the hot story which involves a Memphis high school with 90 pregnant teens this school year. I kinda decided to stay away from this one because we've discussed it before; only difference, then, the school was located in Chicago and had "115 Baby Mommas". But check out the story from Memphis below:







Yeah, I know, for some of you this is embarrassing; and, some of you are wondering, why did they have to be black? Which is funny because when the white girls had their pregnancy pact a few years ago it was never portrayed negatively. But hey, in our current culture where pregnant white teens get shows on MTV and a chance to dance with the stars, and pregnant black teens and their 26yr old mothers get Maury, I can understand. Somebody has to be portrayed negatively, right? Yep, internalized racism can, and is a bitch.

That being said, I classify the above story from Memphis as part irresponsible journalism, and our reactions as an expression of internalized oppression . Yep, our local Memphis media all ran with the story which has since made national headlines. Enough so, that as I mentioned, many of you were appalled and outraged. Yep, and I can hear the, "where were their mothers and fathers," talk in my ear. But you wanna know the truth that the nedia failed to mention?

School Superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash speaks out on the numbers he calls wrong, the numbers that say 90 girls at Frayser High are now or recently have been pregnant.

"This notion that there are 90 pregnant students at Frayser right now is not true. What is true is there is

He says Frayser High is like a magnet school because of a program started by the former principal, Dr. Cassandra Turner, to help young mothers.

"We had parents say this is a problem, can you take my child. I've had schools say Turner we have XYZ can she go to your school," says Turner.

She says 35 pregnant teens transferred to Frayser.

Dr. Cash says 74 were in the program last year.

But he isn't saying why his office never mentioned the program or responded to the pregnancy numbers until Tuesday's press conference with the Mayor.

The press conference was to highlight teen pregnancy initiatives, like a new program with Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center to reach teen boys.

"It involves five sessions of mentoring, training. It goes on over a period of time with a 3 month follow up by counselors who are with us today," says Le Bonheur President and CEO Meri Armour.

There's also a No Baby Campaign to help girls and a county grant for after school prenatal classes.

"We are going to be aggressive. We are going to hit it head on and we hope our story and united response will be inspirational to other community leaders and groups," says Memphis Mayor A C Wharton.

Mayor Wharton says he recently met with Superintendent Cash after seeing reports on Frayser High.

The Mayor wanted to make sure the public knew programs are in place to address teen pregnancy.

But there is still one thing that Dr. Cash says he doesn't know how many pregnant students are actually in city schools.

Because of under and over reporting, he says there is no accurate number. (source)

With the city of Memphis ranking as high as it has for infant mortality, this is a very good initiative. It is good to see funds procured for such a program to specially educate teen mothers. Teen mothers who are more than likely minorities, given the demographics of the city of Memphis.

So don't feel embarrassed, folks. Be happy that something is being done to positively impact the lives of pregnant teens who would otherwise drop out of school. Also, here's to hoping that Frayser High School's program paid for by the city has an impact on the number of pregnant women in bars as well