Teenage pregnancy in Pueblo

[ryanek9freak]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

I can't believe that there's any survey that accurately separates "hispanics" from "non-hispanic" whites because whenever you go to the police blotter and see who is sitting in the can, they instantly identify as "white". Based on the jail population, you'd think Pueblo is composed of 95% whites, but somehow with Hispanic names and complexion.

I don't think tracking folks by religion is any less acurate than tracking them by race.

But as David mentioned, I'd agree that it's more of a socio-economic and religious culture issue than one of race. Besides that, you can get stats to say whatever you want. There again, how did they separate "hispanic" from "white non-hispanics"?

To me, life isn't a game of "LIFE" where you get a thousand bucks for each kid you accumulate at the end.

It's pretty easy Dog, I mean, they volunteered the info about their race, by their own admission for one. Some other posters are correct in the fact that teen pregnancy follows socio-economic factors, such as being poor, and yes, minorities tend to be disproportionate in that area. It's sad that it is so, but it is so.

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by Luvs2Trvl

Well if you lived in Pueblo, what else would there be to do....

Finish high school, get involved in sports, the arts, some kind of pre-professional trade/vocation, whatever you would do in any other Colorado town or city.

What is it you can do for recreation anywhere else? Frolic on the tundra?

[Count David]

Originally Posted by ryanek9freak

You can't deny that hispanic girls have a disproportionate amount of teenage pregnancies. Its not a race bashing thing, it's fact. Need I say more? These figures are straight from the CDC by the way.

Now find the graph that shows teenage pregnancies by median household income.

Obv the graphs are going to show that, as median incomes are lower in the racial/ethnic categories that have high proportions of teenage pregnancy.

I know a majority white town (quite well) that has a similar problem, and the problems/causal factors are the same (poverty, educational problems, "nothing to do", drugs/alcohol, problems with the law, etc).

[Luvs2Trvl]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

Finish high school, get involved in sports, the arts, some kind of pre-professional trade/vocation, whatever you would do in any other Colorado town or city.

What is it you can do for recreation anywhere else? Frolic on the tundra?

Well that's a nice thought but seriously have you been to Pueblo??? All those activities are far more available and achievable to youth in Denver's suburbia than Pueblo. That's like saying you can't understand why the kids in East LA keep joining gangs, maybe because they are growing up in poor communities where they don't get the same opportunities like other people do in more affluent areas. Here's a perfect article about Pueblo's teen prego problems from Oct 2010. The Teen Pregnancy Problem In Southern Colorado

Who knew that 300 kids are getting pregnant every YEAR in a community of 106,000 people, one of our nations worst cities for teen pregnancies. Almost 60% of kids are admitting to sexual activity and it sounds like the schools are continuing to preach more abstinence and less follow through with prevention.

More reasons why this is a bigger problem in Pueblo than other cities:

- Median combined income for a FAMILY in Pueblo is only about $35,000/year. Well below national average and CO state average of approx $55,000

-16.8% of Pueblo's population has a bachelor's degree or higher. Many are probably growing up in families where parents don't have degrees, there is less of an emphasis on education and they don't have the means to go to school let alone afternoon soccer or violin lessons.

-Higher unemployment than the state and national averages

-Higher crime rates (rapes, murders, assaults, burglaries, etc...)

-Construction is the most common Industry

-Nearly half of the population is Hispanic and the rest is mostly white, though I'm betting there are plenty of white kids getting pregnant in this town too.

-Added to all of the above is the inevitability that nationally teens are having sex at younger and younger ages and it's now being glamorized by MTV reality television.

-Realistically, compared to Denver and other Colorado cities, there doesn't seem to be much to do in Pueblo for kids. Honestly, I don't even want to attend the State Fair because it's in Pueblo.

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by Luvs2Trvl

Well that's a nice thought but seriously have you been to Pueblo???

Well sort of. We had a house built in 1999 and have lived here for the last 13 years... and I'd lived in Colorado City for 7 years which is in Pueblo County. So that's 20 years.

So yeah. I've BEEN to Pueblo.

To say kids have nothing to do in Pueblo is a lie. Well there's;

• 24 miles of bicycle and walking trails along the Arkansas River and Fountain Creek
• 47 playgrounds
• Aquatics Centers
• Pueblo Ice Arena
• Four Outdoor Swimming Pools
• 70+ Parks
• Arkansas River Kayak Course
• City Park Disc Golf Course
• City Park Rides and Historic Carousel
• City Park Tennis Complex
• George Williams Pavillion
• Lake Minnequa Park
• Lagoni Soccer Complex
• Mineral Palace Rose Gardens
• Various Baseball fields - Runyon Field Baseball Park
• Honor Farm and Pueblo Motorsports Park
• Elmwood and Walking Stick Golf Course
• Congressional Medal of Honor Museum
• El Pueblo State Historic Museum
• Historic Arkansas Riverwalk and Historic D Street shopping and dining
• Lake Pueblo State Park/Reservoir... aka Pueblo West
• Nature and Raptor Center of Pueblo
• Pueblo Mountain Park
• Pueblo Zoo
• Rosemount Museum
• Sangre de Cristo Arts / Conference Center
• Steelworkers Museum
• Weisbrod Aircraft Museum
• Various other activities recreational and agricultural in the neighboring Pueblo County Mesa, Pueblo West, Colorado City/Rye/San Isabel area
• Various opportunities for fishing, hiking, boating, camping, hunting, etc. up and down the Arkansas Valley and in the Greenhorn/Wet mountains just south of Pueblo and actually still in Pueblo County
• Ski Trips to Monarch
• Pueblo Libraries; Rawlings, Barkman, Lamb, Pueblo West, Library at the Y
• The Mall
• Tinseltown
• Barnes and Chernobyl Bookstore
• Numerous events going on at Colorado State University Pueblo and Pueblo Community College
• The Pueblo State Fair and Event Center... neither of which needed your attendance
• then there's always frollicing on the tundra...
• Hanging out with mom and dad, doing yard work, home improvements and shopping at the local Lowe's and Home Depot...
• Oh, let's not forget! Kids can do what we're all doing right now! Wasting away on the internet!
• I'd also like to add that there are a good number of kids who are active in the many churches in Pueblo County, as well as other spiritual avenues available to them, just like any other town/city of similar size. For kids who get into trouble, there's activities available to them to get free of drugs and alcohol abuse. I know that there is a very strong faction of sober/clean folks here involved with the Colorado Chapter of ICYPAA ( International Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous )... so it would appear that in Pueblo, as in any other place... this tragedy is mostly an internal battle and not an external one... a battle that can be won if one is so motivated.

Flashforward to Sobe... yes Museums. Pueblo's museums are cool and kids like them too.

[Sobe Itsavized]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

Well sort of. We had a house built in 1999 and have lived here for the last 13 years... and I'd lived in Colorado City for 7 years which is in Pueblo County. So that's 20 years.

So yeah. I've BEEN to Pueblo.

To say kids have nothing to do in Pueblo is a lie. Well there's;

• 24 miles of bicycle and walking trails along the Arkansas River and Fountain Creek
• 47 playgrounds
• Aquatics Centers
• Pueblo Ice Arena
• Four Outdoor Swimming Pools
• 70+ Parks
• Arkansas River Kayak Course
• City Park Disc Golf Course
• City Park Rides and Historic Carousel
• City Park Tennis Complex
• George Williams Pavillion
• Lake Minnequa Park
• Lagoni Soccer Complex
• Mineral Palace Rose Gardens
• Various Baseball fields - Runyon Field Baseball Park
• Honor Farm and Pueblo Motorsports Park
• Elmwood and Walking Stick Golf Course
• Congressional Medal of Honor Museum
• El Pueblo State Historic Museum
• Historic Arkansas Riverwalk and Historic D Street shopping and dining
• Lake Pueblo State Park/Reservoir... aka Pueblo West
• Nature and Raptor Center of Pueblo
• Pueblo Mountain Park
• Pueblo Zoo
• Rosemount Museum
• Sangre de Cristo Arts / Conference Center
• Steelworkers Museum
• Weisbrod Aircraft Museum
• Various other activities recreational and agricultural in the neighboring Pueblo County Mesa, Pueblo West, Colorado City/Rye/San Isabel area
• Various opportunities for fishing, hiking, boating, camping, hunting, etc. up and down the Arkansas Valley and in the Greenhorn/Wet mountains just south of Pueblo and actually still in Pueblo County
• Ski Trips to Monarch
• Pueblo Libraries; Rawlings, Barkman, Lamb, Pueblo West, Library at the Y
• The Mall
• Tinseltown
• Barnes and Chernobyl Bookstore
• Numerous events going on at Colorado State University Pueblo and Pueblo Community College
• The Pueblo State Fair and Event Center... neither of which needed your attendance
• then there's always frollicing on the tundra...
• Hanging out with mom and dad, doing yard work, home improvements and shopping at the local Lowe's and Home Depot...
• Oh, let's not forget! Kids can do what we're all doing right now! Wasting away on the internet!

If they have Internet access, yes. Otherwise, no. Not everyone has Internet.

And you are talking about kids, correct? Not fully grown adults? Museums are not places most "kids" these days usually go to for fun. Maybe if you're on a date you might go to the zoo just for fun once in a while.

[Luvs2Trvl]

Well I know when I was a teenager I would have dreamed of visiting the Steelworkers Museum....

[vfrpilot]

Hanging out with mom and dad, doing yard work, home improvements and shopping at the local Lowe's and Home Depot...

Our 11yo would probably not list this as an option for activity
When we lived in San Diego, in an area where Hispanics were the majority, we were involved with youth sports, mainly softball and baseball. I often made the observation that there was a lack of participation from the Hispanic community in youth sports. I'm not sure if this is a cultural, not wanting to assimilate, or practical, not being able to afford, issue. There were even Hispanic youth soccer leagues, which I thought was strange, but even these were not well supported.
I worked with a German immigrant who was married to a Mexican lady. He said the Mexican culture is not one that pushes their offspring to higher levels. It was an big issue in his household.

[McGowdog]

The Hispanic culture of Tijuana North... aka San Diego is different than the Hispanic Culture that has immigrated to Pueblo five-plus generations ago and than the Hispanics who were here when this was once Spanish territory and/or ndn territory.

Originally Posted by Luvs2Trvl

Well I know when I was a teenager I would have dreamed of visiting the Steelworkers Museum....

Well that makes one of us. I wanted to get outta here and head up to Denver to chase girls around up there.