Born in Jersey City and raised in North Philadelphia, 18-year-old Stephanie Jackson never intended to drop out of high school.
A mother at 17, and the youngest of three sisters, she describes having done everything within her power to stay in school throughout her pregnancy.
Stephanie worked at a McDonald's restaurant in the mornings, cared for her infant daughter Tanasia during the day, and took classes for her junior year in the evening. The School District of Philadelphia was offering a “Twilight” after-hours school, generally for overage students and students with attendance challenges or discipline problems.
A daily routine allowed Stephanie to support her daughter while taking the steps she needed to get a high school diploma and, hopefully, go to college.
At the beginning of her senior year, Stephanie returned to William Penn High School, ready to take on her last year of school. But there was one problem: she was told she was “missing” some of her course credits.
“They said it was because I was pregnant that I didn't have my credits,” Stephanie said of her school administrators. “But I never missed a day when I was pregnant.”
Frustrated, Stephanie said she talked to the principal and to her counselor, both of whom responded there was nothing Stephanie could do but continue her schooling for not one, but two more years.
“ I just kept asking, 'What day did I miss, what day did I miss?'” Stephanie stated. She said she asked school administrators, “'Are you talking about two years ago? Because I ain't missed no days.'”
Stephanie recounted how in her junior year she had attended school faithfully for four months when she was pregnant and then for another five months while taking care of her newborn child. She said was willing to do that for another year, but not for two, and not for the purpose of repeating credits she believed she had already earned.
What was the mixup between Stephanie and her school? Perhaps some of her credits had been lost, or perhaps she had not been given a course roster that earned her the credits she needed to stay on track to graduate. But the result was that Stephanie left school in the fall.
Months later, in June, she joined the Youth Empowerment Services GED program, based in the Opportunities Industrialization Center on North Broad Street. Stephanie said that after she obtains her GED, she hopes to go to a community college and study business and accounting.
