When Flor Mendez graduates from San Andreas Continuation High
School today, she’ll have a special person in the audience
– her daughter.
When Flor Mendez graduates from San Andreas Continuation High School today, she’ll have a special person in the audience – her daughter.
Mendez, 19, will graduate from high school with a 5-month-old daughter. It wasn’t an easy task, but Mendez received help from her family and the Adolescent Family Life Program.
This year, 14 teenage moms involved with AFLP will graduate from San Andreas and San Benito High School, a higher than normal number for the program, said Ana Cabrera, a social worker with the AFLP.
“There are two main goals of the program – to get them into school, get an education and to prevent a second pregnancy,” Cabrera said. “The main obstacle they face is child care, especially if there are no relatives to help out.”
Mendez attended San Andreas for two and a half years. After eighth grade, she dropped out of school and didn’t return until she was 16.
“I dropped out because my mom put me to work and I didn’t like it (school),” she said. “My mom wanted to teach me a lesson. I took over her job (caring for elderly). … I signed back up for school. I didn’t want to do that for the rest of my life.”
Despite the obstacles she has faced, Mendez and her mother are happy to see her graduate from high school.
“(I wanted to graduate) to give my daughter a better future, to give myself a better future,” Mendez said.
Mendez agrees with Cabrera that child care is the biggest barrier for teen parents wanting to go to school. Her mom has been helping out, but will be returning to work soon.
When Mendez and her boyfriend start summer school at Gavilan College on Monday, she said she doesn’t know what she’s going to do for child care.
“I applied for child care at Gav, but the waiting list is six months to a year long. In the meantime, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Mendez said.
SBHS senior and AFLP participant Llubia Valdivia also has relatives helping with child care, but will have to look elsewhere this fall.
Besides helping parenting teens find child care options, the AFLP strives to improve the teens’ health, social and economic well-being.
The statewide program offers various services that include: building self-esteem, prioritizing personal goals, developing effective parenting skills, obtaining social and economic independence and locating and utilizing appropriate community resources such as pre- and post-natal care, mental health services, family planning services, shelter, child care and sexually transmitted disease education and prevention. These services are supplied at no cost to the parent.
“I learn a little bit more about things. (I participate to) educate myself – like how to take care of my daughter,” Mendez said. “If I have questions, I can call them (AFLP caseworkers) any time. They’re someone I can rely on.”
Currently, there are more than 40 teen parents participating in the program with the majority comprised of females, Cabrera said. Eligible teens must be pregnant and/or parenting up to age 20 for females and 21 for males, Cabrera said.
In 2001, 51.1 babies were born to teens for every 1,000 teens in San Benito County, according to the California Department of Health Services.
In addition to child care, students also face finding transportation to school, Cabrera said. The AFLP gives students tickets to use on the county’s public transportation system for free to help them get to school easier, she said.
When pregnant, the majority of females go to school until the last six weeks, Cabrera said. Before and after the birth, students enroll in home or independent study until they go back to school.
“It’s not like they’re staying home and doing nothing,” Cabrera said.
While going back to school can be hard to do, AFLP caseworkers encourage students to return and graduate.
“They (AFLP caseworkers) help out a lot. They encourage you to go to school,” Valdivia said.
Valdivia, 17, said she is glad she finished school and can go on to college. She said her family will be happy and proud to see her graduate from SBHS on Friday.
Valdivia will start at Gavilan in the fall. She wants to become a nurse specializing in delivering babies, something she was inspired to do when she was pregnant with her daughter, Denitza.
“I really wanted to graduate and go into college,” she said. “It’s hard nowadays to get a good job to support a child.”
