Teen-Age Mother

It is wonderful that teen-age mother Lydia Nolasco and her baby, Danny, have the support of both of her parents and of the father of the baby (June 12). She is to be admired for her ambition and hard work, which will surely garner her the college degree that she desires. The entire article shows the positive side of teen motherhood. I am sure Newt Gingrich and his ilk were meant to be placated with the comment that she has “never collected welfare.”

However, political agendas aside, one has to wonder about the other 4,999 teen mothers in the school district and their stories. How many of those girls will graduate like Lydia? How many others have already dropped out and are not counted? For every successful teen mother, there are scores of others who find themselves in a cycle of poverty and ignorance which the demands of premature parenting make difficult to break.

DIANA MILLIGAN

Long Beach

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Regarding Nolasco, an unwed, 17-year-old mother about to graduate from San Fernando High School, did I miss the point here? Lydia is being singled out for praise because she is about to graduate in spite of the fact that at 15 years of age she and her boyfriend chose to bring a child into this world while unmarried, still in high school, and with no means of financial support.

We should be applauding those teens who choose to wait to start their families until they have jobs, are married and are no longer children themselves. Bringing a child into this world when you are in your teens and still in high school because you thought it would be an “exciting, even fun, experience” is not something we should be honoring.

DIANE SMITH

Upland