Oct 22, 2009 10:47 pm US/Central
Where Are The Teen Dads Of Robeson High?
Program Seeks To Teach Them Parenting Skills Alongside Moms
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Kabil Moore, 18, says he wants to be a part of his daughter's life.
CBS
In the week since CBS 2 reported about
115 pregnant or parenting moms at an Englewood high school, dozens of viewers asked the same question: Where are the dads?
Kristyn Hartman reports on the other part of the equation.
Eighteen-year-old Kabil Moore signed up. He's in his senior year. He will become a father next month.
"I need to be in my baby's life so she can have a dad 'cause I never had one," Moore said.
He doesn't think all young men are as involved as him.
"He's the exception, most definitely," said David Robinson of the Chicago Child Care Society.
At Robeson, where some kids have taken on very adult responsibilities, he's a parent educator who helps some 115 pregnant teens or young moms-to-be. A couple of years ago, the parent initiative reached out to dads, too.
"Statistics show that fatherless children have a harder time in life," Robinson said.
He says that's a lot of what you see in Englewood. There are broken homes, there's poverty, and there's crime. Right after school, CBS 2 witnessed a street fight just off campus.
"A lot of children wouldn't be into some of the things they were if they had that parental balance," Robinson said.
That's all the more reason to get young dads like Kabil involved. But not all fathers are students. Some are adult men.
"Some are on the streets," Robinson said. "Some were high-school students and they dropped out. Some are ex-convicts."
They try to talk to the girls about that. If those girls become moms, and if their other half isn't present , the cycle could be at greater risk of repeating. Kabil doesn't want that to happen in his case. He doesn't expect it to be easy, but said he's going to be there for his daughter for the next 18 years.
Just 11 percent of the kids involved in the Chicago Child Care Society's parenting program are boys.
The society says teen parent ranks have grown, at least at Robeson, but that could be because the support they and the school offer is helping the kids stay in class.
This isn't just a Robeson issue. Thirteen percent of all babies born in Chicago in 2007 were born to teen moms.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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