Earning an A for Effort to Succeed : A teen-age mother is getting her San Fernando High diploma and strives for independence

Teen-age pregnancy is a mistake that often involves incredibly high long-term costs. Because the girls are unprepared for such responsibility, and because equally immature fathers are mostly no help at all, disaster usually ensues.

According to a 1994 study by the New York-based Alan Guttmacher Institution, for example, more than half of the funds dispersed nationally by the Aid to Families with Dependent Children welfare program go to families begun by teen-age mothers. In California alone, the state legislative analyst says that families started by teen-agers ultimately cost taxpayers $5 billion to $7 billion a year in welfare, health care and food stamps.

The refrain is simple: Trust an unreliable male, have a baby too soon, wreck your life, rely on government to foot the bill.

But we’ve found someone with the tenacity to overcome such a mistake, someone who could beat such long odds against her. Lydia Nolasco, 17, of San Fernando Valley High School, seems to be just such a fighter. What she has accomplished thus far in her life is admirable. She shows that even a serious lapse in judgment does not always lead to welfare dependency.

On Tuesday, Lydia will receive her high school diploma. The next stop: beginning her post-secondary education at Valley College in Van Nuys. Her ultimate goal is a good-paying job, and independence.

The adversity she faced in getting this far would have been intense for any teen-ager.

She was an honor student who was asked to leave her magnet school courses. A high school for pregnant students was recommended, but it turned out to have a far less academically supportive atmosphere. The “friends” who should have stuck by her stopped calling and no longer invited her to gatherings.

Fortunately, she has family support, and that has been crucial.

“I have the attitude that I can, I will, I am going to succeed,” Lydia told Times reporter Jeannette DeSantis. It’s an attitude that shows her determination--and we hope she does well.