Teachers, colleagues and most worthy opponents, audience all, a pleasant good morning to you.

Today I stand before you as the third speaker of the opposition to reaffirm our opposing stance on the
moot ‘Teenagers should be allowed to attend school before and after delivery’

As the first speaker had rightfully established, the job of a teacher is to educate, hence the root word
‘teach’. A teacher has no business attempting to aid a pregnant child who is experiencing any of the too
numerous complications associated with pregnancy. Allow me to name a few, according to
mayoclinic.org; Severe, persistent nausea, fatigue, moodiness, cramping, nasal congestions as well as
a plethora of other ailments.

Answer me this, members of the proposition, how could a teacher possibly impart knowledge into the
future leaders of this country while simultaneously trying to assist a pregnant girl who’s regurgitating
her previous meal up onto the classroom floor? And how can you expect students to retain information
with nothing short of a de-glorified hospital scene taking place right in the classroom? A classroom
which is supposed to provide a learning-friendly environment. Surely, audience, you would agree with
me when I say that the education of roughly 30 students should not be compromised for the sake of just
one child who will probably not be able to learn anything due to regular bouts of nausea.

The second speaker has also expounded on the fact that it would be incredibly taxing for a pregnant
teen to balance both caring for her newborn child and academics at the same time.

According to an article published by ABC news, 3 out of 4 students indicated feeling high levels of stress
almost all the time. Pair this with the amount of energy that is going to be drained from this teen who
also has to take care of a newborn child and the result is an immensely stressed out adolescent who is
heading down a path to mental health problems, high blood pressure, heart attacks, stroke and even
death in a worst case scenario.

So in conclusion, teachers and students, the proposition may try to tell us that ‘everyone has the right to
an education’ but I believe that everyone has the right to be alive. Having pregnant teens stay in school
can prove to be detrimental to not only the young mother but also her unborn child. It is too big of a risk
to take especially when employment can be gained even without a secondary education, such as in the
field of hairdressing or cosmetology.

According to Steve Maraboli ‘The right thing to do and the hard thing to do are usually the same thing’.
So let us as a society do what is best for our young people and come to the agreement that the place for
a mother is not in school, but at home, taking care of a child that may grow up to be one of the greatest
members of our society.