"P" is for pregnancy, and also for pariah

Quick, what do you think better constitutes a geometry lesson: a) learning how to use a protractor, or b) sewing quilts?

If you answered b) sewing quilts, then you will be sad to hear that the NYC 'pregnancy schools' are closing.

Someone in my human rights class raised this issue tonight to ask if the city's deliberate removal of pregnant teens from their regular schools to these so-called pregnancy schools--which by all indications have, since their inception in the 1960's, set these girls up for academic failure--could be considered an abuse of their human right to education.

The consensus in class--this includes the professor and people smarter than me--was that yes, this would be a clear violation of their human rights. I would probably go an additional step and say not only is it a violation of their human right to education, but also a violation of other charters because it is based clearly on their gender...since the boys who got them pregnant aren't sewing quilts.

The corresponding article in the New York Times doesn't mince many words, either.

The city is--finally--shutting them down, and will hopefully start concentrating on a) preventing teen pregnancy through thorough and accurate sex ed and b) working harder on getting teen parents to finish their diplomas.