Conclusion
Through all my research, I have come to the conclusion that teenage pregnancy is not a "legitimate pedagogical concern." While I understand the viewpoint of those who believe that it may be a bit risqué of a topic, I also believe that the attempt to keep children pure for as long as possible is only leaving a gaping whole in their education, if not academically, then about life. Through the surveys and interviews I conducted, it is clear that both students, and parents do not see a problem with addressing teenage pregnancy in high school newspaper articles, so I do not understand why administrations would. It's not like teenagers don't know about what is going on around them, and by trying to shield them, schools are only promoting these acts more. While researching and reading on censorship, I realized that there is really no basis on to how schools decide what to censor, and what not to censor, for it seems to be almost rather subjective in my opinion. While some schools do censor articles on teenage pregnancy, others do not, so if it is a "legitimate pedagogical concern," in one school, how is it not in another? There is clearly a lack of of clarification on this idea of a "legitimate pedagogical concern," and one that needs to be addressed within the near future, for until school find a legitimate reason as to why teenage pregnancy is a disturbance, then there should be no reason as to why it should be censored. If we look at the Hazlwood case, "the principal objected to the two articles because pregnant students at the high school had been interviewed for a survey and the principal was afraid that their identities would be disclosed; the principal also felt that the references to sex and birth control were inappropriate for the younger students at the school" (Bittner, 113). However, if the students consented to the article how is that a problem? In regards to the age problem, going into high school students are around 14 to 15, and are obviously already aware of topics such as teenage pregnancy, and so forth. In a generation where some of the most popular shows have to do with teenage pregnancy (Teen Mom, 16 and pregnant, etc.) it is clear that these younger students are not oblivious to the topic. In the end I believe that this censorship has more to do with schools trying to protect themselves, rather than trying to protect students. Having a pregnant student may not be the kind of advertisement a school wants, and having an article written about it only brings more attention to the topic, attention that the school definitely does not want. Therefore my conclusion is that no, teenage pregnancy is not a "legitimate pedagogical concern."